ST BRIAVELS

St. Briavels (fn. 1) lies on the east bank of the river
Wye 11 km. (6¾ miles) upstream from Chepstow
(Mon.). In 1086 and until the 1160s or later it
was called Lydney or Little Lydney, having
presumably had an ancient tenurial connexion
with the nearby place still called Lydney, (fn. 2) but
the name St. Briavels, thought to derive from
the Celtic saint Brieuc, (fn. 3) was also in use by
1130. (fn. 4) Parts of St. Briavels parish were formed
by assarting from the royal demesne land of the
Forest of Dean in the early Middle Ages, and it
was enlarged by the addition of detached parts
of the extraparochial Forest in 1842. A royal
castle built in the village before 1130, on a
commanding site above the Wye, became the
administrative centre of the Forest. In the 13th
century St. Briavels was also one of the sites of
the Forest iron industry.

This account covers the history of the parish
within its modern boundaries, which are the
product of a complex history. In 1066 St. Briavels probably comprised a small manor based on
the village, closely surrounded by the Forest
woodland and waste. A manor called Wyegate,
which William I afforested and took out of
cultivation before 1086, may have included land
in the north part of the later parish, (fn. 5) and by the
early 13th century a royal estate called Stowe,
including a hermitage, occupied land on the
north boundary. (fn. 6) Assarting later increased the
area of St. Briavels, much of the north and east
parts of which was claimed by the Crown as
ancient assart in the early 17th century. (fn. 7) In 1361
200 a. adjoining the Stowe estate were found to
have been assarted since 1226. (fn. 8) Land called
Rodmore near the east boundary of the later
parish was being encroached by 1231, (fn. 9) and the
king's reeve of St. Briavels, apparently acting
without royal sanction, built a house on land at
Willsbury in the same area before 1270. (fn. 10) In
1282, however, the eastern end of the later parish
was probably still within the royal demesne of
the Forest, for part of the west boundary of the
Forest bailiwick called Bearse was then described as running from Stowe along the edge
of the cultivated land of St. Briavels past Rodmore to Cone brook; (fn. 11) the boundary presumably
included the land that became known as Bearse
common, later a detached part of the Forest
waste, and may then have turned southwards,
following Rodmore Lane from the site of Great
Hoggins Farm down to the Cone. By 1294 an
estate at Rodmore, with land east of Rodmore
Lane, was in private ownership and Willsbury
probably was by 1300. (fn. 12) A new assart of 60½ a.
described as at 'le Horestone' in 1316 probably
adjoined the stone called the Long stone, (fn. 13) north
of the road from Bream to St. Briavels on the
later Closeturf farm, and 33 a. which Osbert
Malemort was licensed to assart in 1306 and
which his son William Gainer held in 1361 (fn. 14) can
probably be identified with Gainer's Mesne,
lying on the later parish boundary, east of
Closeturf. (fn. 15) The tithes from some of the new
land were disputed by the dean and chapter of
Hereford, owners of St. Briavels chapel, and the
bishop of Llandaff, who was granted the tithes
from new assarts in the Forest for his church of
Newland in 1305. By arbitration in 1310 the
boundary between the chapelry and Newland on
the north-east was fixed on or close to its modern
course: from an old castle at Stowe, the earthworks of which still survive, it was traced past
unidentified landmarks, which presumably took
it west and south of Bearse common, along a
portway, evidently the lane between Bearse
Farm and Bream Cross, to the Coleford-Aylburton road ('Aylburton way'), and along that
road to the Pailwell oak, which probably stood
at the place near the head of Pailwell (later Park)
brook where the boundaries of St. Briavels,
Bream tithing of Newland, and Aylburton tithing of Lydney met. (fn. 16) In the north-west part of
the later parish the valley between the village
and the Wye was being cleared for cultivation
by 1199 when an assart of 6 a. at Lindhurst (later
the site of Lindors farm) was recorded. (fn. 17)

The progress of assarting left detached parts
of the extraparochial Forest (fn. 18) within or adjoining
St. Briavels parish. In 1608 St. Briavels Mesne,
an area of 81 a. on the hillside below the village,
was extraparochial, (fn. 19) but in 1787 only 24 a. in
its western part, known as Mocking (or
Mawkins) Hazel wood, was surveyed as part of
the extraparochial Forest. The status of the
eastern part, called Lower Meend, was in doubt
in the early 19th century, (fn. 20) when it had been
encroached by cottagers, but it was later assumed to be part of the parish. In 1787 the
Fence, on the north boundary of the parish,
probably the land called in 1282 'le defens',
meaning an inclosure, was an extraparochial area
of 44 a., and Bearse common, which retains the
name of the Forest bailiwick dismembered by
assarting in the St. Briavels and Newland area,
was an extraparochial area of 102 a. adjoining
the north-east boundary. To the south-west St.
Briavels was bounded by a great tract of extraparochial land called Hudnalls. (fn. 21) Extended at
1,205 a. in 1608 and 1,010 a. in 1641, (fn. 22) it
comprised the land later distinguished separately by the names Hudnalls and St. Briavels
common and the north and west parts of the land
later called Hewelsfield common. (fn. 23) Although
encroached upon, the extraparochial areas remained part of the royal demesne of the Forest
until the 19th century. (fn. 24) In 1827 the Crown sold
its rights in Hudnalls, Mocking Hazel wood, and
the Fence to the owner of the Bigsweir estate,
and later in the century its rights in Bearse
common passed to the owner of the Clearwell
estate. (fn. 25)

In 1840 St. Briavels parish was said to contain
3,312 a. Its principal part was bounded on the
west by the river Wye, on the north mainly by
field boundaries and the ancient portway mentioned above, on the east partly by the
Coleford-Aylburton road and Colliers brook,
and on much of the south by Aylesmore brook
and the steep hillside north of Hudnalls. A
detached part of the parish, mainly a narrow
strip of meadowland, bordered the Wye below
and west of Hudnalls, extending from near the
principal part at Bigsweir southwards to Brockweir village. (fn. 26) In 1842 the civil parish was
enlarged to include Mocking Hazel wood, the
Fence, Bearse common, and most of Hudnalls,
the rest of Hudnalls going to Hewelsfield civil
parish. (fn. 27) The new parish boundary with Hewelsfield was fixed on the brook running down the
hillside through Hudnalls between St. Briavels
common and Hewelsfield common. The brook
was called Mere (or Meer) brook by 1608, (fn. 28) a
name which suggests that it delimited the areas
over which St. Briavels and Hewelsfield had
respectively exercised rights, and even before
1842 the north and south-west parts of Hudnalls
were sometimes popularly regarded as being
within St. Briavels parish. (fn. 29) After 1842 the civil
parish comprised 4,798 a. (1,942 ha.). (fn. 30)

Much of the enlarged parish lies on a plateau
high above the Wye Valley. In the south-west
Hudnalls rises to just over 260 m. (853 ft.), steep
sided on the north and towards the river on the
west and sloping more gently towards the Brockweir valley on the south. In the north-west the
land also rises steeply from the river to the top
of Wyegate hill at over 210 m. (689 ft.). Between
Hudnalls and Wyegate hill a horseshoe-shaped
valley, perhaps formed by a vanished meander
of the river, breaks into the high ground, and
side valleys, formed by Mork brook and its
tributary, Slade brook, combine to enter the
main valley from the east. In the east part of the
parish the land is open and gently rolling, mostly
at c. 200 m. (656 ft.), while to the south-east
Aylesmore brook joins the headwaters of Cone
brook to form a deep valley draining to the
Severn. The west part of the parish lies on the
Old Red Sandstone and the east part on carboniferous limestone. (fn. 31)

In 1086 St. Briavels manor included a wood
measuring 1 league by ½ league, (fn. 32) and the steep
slopes of the Wye Valley have remained thickly
wooded. Woods in those areas, owned by the
Bigsweir estate, accounted for most of c. 500 a.
of woodland recorded on the parochial land in
1840. Rodmore grove (70 a.) on the east boundary was then the only large wood in the upland
areas. (fn. 33) Hudnalls was said to contain 710 a. of
underwood and 300 a. of cleared ground in
1641. (fn. 34) On its high land and southern slopes the
woodland was cleared by the exercise of commoning rights and rights to take timber, and
from c. 1800 (fn. 35) encroachments produced a pattern of tiny fields. In 1991 the woodland on the
steep slopes remained native hardwoods, mostly
coppiced but including some large oaks and
beeches on the northern edge of Hudnalls. On
Bearse common, in the Slade brook and Aylesmore brook valleys, and elsewhere conifer
plantations were established in the 20th century.
Some small open fields once lay around St.
Briavels village, while in the east of the parish
assarting in the early Middle Ages produced a
pattern of compact, inclosed farms.

Offa's Dyke (fn. 36) descends Wyegate hill to the
floor of the horseshoe valley, where it appears
prominently in St. Margaret's grove, north of
Mork brook. It is discernible again south of
Lindhurst, where it was recorded by name
('Offedich') in 1321, (fn. 37) and it crosses the high
land of Hudnalls as a reduced but fairly continuous feature. The ancient megalith called the
Long stone, 10 ft. high, which stood in a field
near Closeturf Farm, (fn. 38) was blown to pieces with
gunpowder by a farmer in 1875. (fn. 39)

The principal ancient route through the parish
was probably that which linked several of the
early settlements on the east side of the Wye.
From Hewelsfield village it ran past the site of
Aylesmore Court to St. Briavels village, descended Mork hill to a ford on Mork brook,
climbed the opposite side of the valley to
Wyegate Green, which is probably the site of
the manor depopulated in the late 11th century,
and continued through Newland parish to the
riverside at Redbrook. The road became known
as Hewelsfield Lane south of St. Briavels village
and Mork Lane north of it, and the section up
to Wyegate Green was called Wyegate's way in
1376. (fn. 40) The road from Chepstow, west of Hewelsfield Lane and meeting it at the village, was
in existence by 1448. (fn. 41) Another ancient route,
recorded in 1445 as the Monmouth to Brockweir
road, (fn. 42) followed the east bank of the Wye below
Wyegate hill and Hudnalls. At Bigsweir, where
shallows and a group of tiny islets were used as
the basis of a fishing weir, the river was fordable: (fn. 43)
Passage Lane was mentioned in that area in 1445 (fn. 44)
and Passage mead, upstream of the ford, was so
called by 1787. (fn. 45) The road leading from the ford
up the Mork brook valley towards the Forest was
evidently a significant route in the early Middle
Ages, for a castle was built at Stowe to command
the head of the valley and two chapels stood by
the road, one at Stowe and one at Mork hamlet. (fn. 46)
St. Briavels village was linked to the ford and the
Monmouth-Brockweir road by a steep track down
through Lindhurst. (fn. 47) The principal ancient road
from the village eastwards into the extraparochial
Forest was that called the portway in 1310. (fn. 48) It
ran on the line of the modern Coleford road to
Bearse common, beyond which it followed the
parish boundary to the place called Bream's gate
cross in 1464 (later Bream Cross). (fn. 49) In 1625
William Whittington of St. Briavels left £5 for
a causeway on part of the road (fn. 50) and the remains
of pitching were visible on a stretch east of Roads
House in 1991. Around the village and the
hamlet of Coldharbour, to the south-west, a
complex pattern of minor lanes was in place by
1608, (fn. 51) and a similarly complex pattern evolved
in the early 19th century to serve the scattered
dwellings on Hudnalls.

ST. BRIAVELS AND HEWELSFIELD 1840

Under an Act of 1824 a new turnpike road was
built up the Wye Valley to link Chepstow and
Monmouth. It crossed from the Monmouthshire
bank by a new bridge, called Bigsweir bridge, a
single cast-iron span with stone abutments,
which was opened in 1827, and it incorporated
most of the old riverside road in the north of St.
Briavels parish. The same Act turnpiked the
road from Bigsweir bridge up the Mork valley
and authorized a branch from that road up to
St. Briavels village. (fn. 52) The road to the village was
built in 1829 and, although it was later taken
over by the turnpike trust, the cost was met by
the parish and George Rooke, owner of the
Bigsweir estate. It replaced an old lane, which
had partly followed a more westerly course
through Alien's grove, and a new bridge was
built for it over Mork brook. Turnpike gates
were set up near the foot of the new road to the
village (fn. 53) and at Mork Green, where the Mork
valley road crossed the old road to Wyegate. (fn. 54) In
1830, by agreement of the parish vestry and
George Rooke, the old riverside road south of
Bigsweir bridge was closed. (fn. 55) The Wye Valley
and Bigsweir roads remained turnpikes until
1879. (fn. 56) The short stretch of the Chepstow-Coleford road north of Bearse Farm, where it
branched from the line of the old portway to
cross the extraparochial Bearse common, was
repaired under the Forest turnpike trust established in 1796. (fn. 57) A tollbooth was sited at Bearse
Farm. (fn. 58) Within St. Briavels the Chepstow-Coleford road was repaired by the parish under
indictment in 1813, (fn. 59) and in 1837 it was described as equal in condition to a turnpike road. (fn. 60)
The use of the other old main roads declined
following the improvements of the 1820s. That
from Hewelsfield to Wyegate Green was closed
as a highway south of St. Briavels village in 1837. (fn. 61)
In 1991 most of it survived as an unmade bridle
way between high hedges, as did the old portway,
which the parish had tried to get Clearwell
tithing to join in repairing and widening in 1876. (fn. 62)

After 1876 when the Wye Valley railway was
built along the Monmouthshire bank of the river
the parish was served by a station, called St.
Briavels, in Llandogo parish near the west end
of Bigsweir bridge. The line was closed to
passenger traffic in 1959 and to freight in 1964. (fn. 63)

A market was founded at St. Briavels in 1208, and
the villagers were termed burgesses in 1352. The
attempt to establish St. Briavels as a market centre
ultimately failed, (fn. 64) but the village, with its role at
the centre of the Forest administration, was
probably fairly large in the Middle Ages. It
stands high on the eastern rim of the horseshoe
valley on the ancient route between Hewelsfield
and Wyegate Green, which perhaps formed its
main street in the Anglo-Saxon period. The
parish church stands beside that route and probably pre-dated St. Briavels castle, which was
founded before 1130 (fn. 65) to the south of the church,
astride the ancient route. The castle became and
remains the dominant feature of the village, with
a network of lanes centred on it. A lane circling
the castle earthworks was joined on the south
side by Hewelsfield Lane, which becomes Pystol
Lane in the village, and by the Chepstow road,
called High Street. In 1608 there was a continuous green or open market place between the two
streets and High Street had houses only on its
west side. (fn. 66) Only a small open space called the
Square later survived at the north end near the
castle, but further south, where the two roads
entered the village near the 19th-century school,
a patch of green remained in 1991. The other
main streets are Mork Lane, on the ancient route
north of the castle, Church Street, called
Venny Street in 1388, (fn. 67) which runs east of the
castle and in 1608 continued east of the
churchyard to join Mork Lane, and East
Street, by which the route to Coleford left the
village, running south-eastwards from the central ring of lanes. West of the castle, where the
ground falls steeply away, lanes from the settlements of the west part of the parish meet below a
triangular spur of waste ground that was called
Bailey green in 1619 and later Bailey Tump. (fn. 68) In
that area of the village, which became known as
Cinder hill, the lanes traversing the hillside formed
an even more complex pattern before the 1830s
than survived there in 1991. (fn. 69) On the south side of
the village, Barrowell Lane, (fn. 70) named from Barrow
(anciently Barrel) well, (fn. 71) linked Hewelsfield Lane
and the Coleford road.

In 1608 the most concentrated groups of
houses in the village, probably cottages or other
small dwellings, were near the castle, some on
the east side of Church Street and others extend
ing along the south side of the castle earthworks
from Church Street down to Cinder hill. High
Street then had c. 7 larger houses spaced at
regular intervals along its west side, with the
southernmost one at or near the site of the later
farmhouse called New House; possibly they
originated as the dwellings of a group of Forest
officers called serjeants-in-fee who were based at
St. Briavels in the 13th century. (fn. 72) In 1608 there
were a few houses near the south end of Pystol
Lane near Barrow well, while north of the castle
small farmhouses were scattered along Mork
Lane as far as a place called Tilthams Tump,
where the lane dips down Mork hill. The village
was later reduced in extent. At the beginning of
the 18th century the sites of demolished houses
were visible, (fn. 73) and by 1840 the houses between
the Square and Cinder hill and most of those
near Barrow well and on Mork Lane had gone.
Most of the houses on the west side of High
Street had also been demolished and those near
the north end had been replaced by a more
continuous row. A few houses had been built on
the east side of Pystol Lane and others, one dated
1829, had been added recently near a place
known as Cross Keys at the junction of East
Street, Barrowell Lane, and the Bream and
Coleford roads. (fn. 74)

The older parts of the village are formed
mainly of modest, two-storeyed, stone-built
dwellings of the late 18th century and the early
19th. Church (formerly Churchyard) Farm, near
the south end of Mork Lane, dates in part from
the late 16th century and had a cross passage
flanked by two large rooms. The south end of
the house was added or rebuilt in the 18th
century and a new cross passage was formed
in the end of the older part. A small gabled
building opposite the entrance to Church
Street, by tradition once the home of the
priests who served a chantry in the church, (fn. 75)
dates in part from the 17th century but was
much altered later, and the George inn southeast of the castle is also 17th-century in origin.
Cinderhill, below Bailey Tump, is an L-shaped
17th-century farmhouse, restored and remodelled in the 20th. In 1698 it was owned, with a
small estate in the parish, by the Birkin family
and in 1760 it passed by marriage to James
Davies (fn. 76) (d.1781), curate of St. Briavels. (fn. 77) St.
Briavels House on the east side of Pystol Lane
is a moderate-sized 19th-century residence, perhaps built for Charles Lord Denton, a
prominent inhabitant and benefactor to the
village. (fn. 78) A few small 18th- and early 19th-century
farmhouses in and adjoining the village include
Patchwell Farm in East Street, which in 1991
was being restored and its buildings converted
as dwellings, and New House Farm on the
Chepstow road south of the school.

In 1931 the Lydney rural district built eight
council houses at Cross Keys on the east side of
the village, (fn. 79) and the council estate there was
enlarged in the 1950s and 1960s, partly by a
small group of old people's bungalows. (fn. 80) In the
late 1960s and early 1970s (fn. 81) a substantial estate
of private houses was formed in the south-east
part of the village, filling the area between Pystol
Lane and East Street and partly based on Barrowell Lane, which was improved and extended
south-westwards to enable Coleford-Chepstow
traffic to bypass the village centre. A few small
housing developments in the late 1980s included
one on the Bream road, east of Cross Keys.

In the horseshoe valley below St. Briavels
village a place called Lindhurst was settled by
1310, (fn. 82) and in 1608 apparently comprised a
number of dwellings. (fn. 83) Later there was only a
single farmstead, the name of which by the 19th
century was corrupted to Lindors Farm. (fn. 84) Further north a hamlet called Mork, of which little
survived by the 20th century, grew up on the
Bigsweir-Stowe road around the junction with
the old road descending from St. Briavels village
through Allen's grove. By the mid 14th century
it had three or more houses, a mill, and a
roadside chapel, (fn. 85) and in 1608 it comprised c. 13
small dwellings, most of them grouped loosely
around a green on the Stowe road east of the
junction. (fn. 86) A farmhouse called Mork Farm below the junction belonged during the 17th and
18th centuries to the Dale family, whose enlargement of their farm caused the disappearance of
at least some of the other houses of the hamlet. (fn. 87)
In 1846 the farm was bought by James White
(d. 1871), a land agent of Coleford, who replaced
the house with a large residence in an elaborate
Tudor style, named Lindors, and formed a
garden with an ornamental pond on Mork brook
below. (fn. 88) A smaller house in a similar style, called
Woodlands, was built nearby, on the north side
of the road, c. 1850. (fn. 89) Further up the road to
Stowe, where the road and the brook were
crossed by the St. Briavels-Wyegate road, a
settlement was established near another small
green. In 1608, when the place was known as
Mork Green, there were three or four houses
there. (fn. 90) A farmhouse standing close to the road
junction and known as Mork Farm by 1880 (fn. 91)
apparently occupies the site of a dwelling recorded in 1376. (fn. 92) It is a gabled, stone building
of the early 17th century, built on an L-shaped
plan and entered beneath a newel-stair turret in
the angle of its two ranges. Internally many of
the original fittings survive. At the head of the
valley St. Briavels included two farmhouses
attached to the hamlet of Stowe, which is otherwise in Newland parish. Stowe Grange, on the
south-east side of the road, is on the site of a
medieval manor. (fn. 93) There was a farmhouse at
Stowe Farm, further down the hill on the other
side of the road, by 1608 when the farm belonged
to the Clearwell estate; (fn. 94) in the late 17th century
and until c. 1780 it was part of a scattered estate
that the Foley family of Stoke Edith (Herefs.)
owned in the parish. (fn. 95)

St Briavels Village Area, 1608

Only a few early dwellings were established on
the banks of the Wye beside the old Monmouth-
Brockweir road. A house called the Florence
stood near the north boundary of the parish by
1588. (fn. 96) Its name, recorded as that of a wood in
1253, (fn. 97) possibly derived from St. Florent abbey
(Saumur), which had a claim to St. Briavels
church in the 12th century. (fn. 98) The Florence
descended with the adjoining Wyeseal manor, in
Newland, (fn. 99) and in 1800 was occupied by the
woodman of Lord Sherborne's large Newland
estate. (fn. 100) It was rebuilt in an ornamental style c.
1900 and was a hotel in 1991. Bigsweir House,
built beside the weir of that name and the ford,
was the centre of one of principal estates of the
parish. (fn. 101) Knoll Farm, on the ancient parochial
land on the promontory below Hudnalls, is
possibly the successor of a house built in that
area by John Williams, a mariner, c. 1750. (fn. 102) In
the early 19th century a few cottages were built
at the riverside in St. Briavels parish close to
Brockweir, most of them occupied by watermen
employed in Brockweir's trade. (fn. 103) In the 20th
century they were demolished or else incorporated in larger dwellings. Further north the
lower slopes of the wooded hillside were settled
with private houses in the late 19th century, one
of them, a substantial dwelling called Brockweir
House, with its own boathouse on the river bank
below.

Farmsteads are scattered fairly evenly across
the high ground of the east and south parts of
the ancient parish. Willsbury and Rodmore were
established in the early Middle Ages and Aylesmore Court by the late 17th century. (fn. 104) Great
Hoggins Farm, at a place called Willsbury
green (fn. 105) where the Bream road meets Rodmore
Lane, was owned and farmed by the Allen family
from the early 18th century to the mid 19th. (fn. 106) It
is a late 17th-century stone farmhouse of two
storeys and attics, which had a symmetrical plan
with central entrance and end-gable stacks. A
back wing was added in 1767, (fn. 107) displaced windows being reset in it, and by the 19th century
a lean-to occupied the angle between the new
and old ranges. In the mid 19th century the main
range was extended eastwards and the dormers
and ground-floor windows of the old part of that
range were made uniform with those of the
extension. The other farmhouses are mainly
small buildings in the plain vernacular style of
the 18th century and early 19th, though a number occupy earlier sites. Bearse Farm, where the
Coleford road leaves the old portway, was established by the mid 17th century, (fn. 108) as was Bream
Cross Farm, at the east end of the portway;
Bream Cross had the alternative name of Brockets in 1659. (fn. 109) Roads Farm (later Roads House),
on the portway at the junction with a lane from
Willsbury green, was mentioned in 1704. Lands
called Closeturf, north-east of the green, then
contained only a barn, (fn. 110) Closeturf Farm being
built beside the Bream road in the mid 18th
century. One of two farmhouses called
Dunkilns, standing close together south of the
Bream road, existed by 1723. The more southerly of the two was later distinguished as Great
Dunkilns, (fn. 111) and the northern one was called
Severn View in the 20th century. (fn. 112) Highgrove,
further south, is a house of c. 1820 and was
probably newly established then as the principal
farmhouse on the Aylesmore estate. (fn. 113) A residence called Ghyll House was built on the site
of a barn west of the Chepstow road c. 1910. (fn. 114)

The former extraparochial common lands in
the west part of St. Briavels were populated by
squatters during the late 18th century and the
early 19th. Three cottages recorded on Hudnalls
in 1656 (fn. 115) may not have survived the government's expulsions of illegal settlers from Forest
lands in the following years. (fn. 116) The parishioners
of St. Briavels were later active in preventing
encroachments, (fn. 117) but attempts to prevent cottagers settling were apparently abandoned at the
start of the 19th century, when Hudnalls rapidly
became studded with cottages and small farmhouses. (fn. 118) By 1841 the parts that were added to
St. Briavels civil parish the next year-the high
plateau in the north and St Briavels common on
the southern slopes-contained more than 130
houses, (fn. 119) many of them with closes of cultivated
land around them; in 1832 most of the settlers
were said to be former inhabitants of the parish. (fn. 120) Some of the small dwellings on Hudnalls
were evidently abandoned and demolished
later in the 19th century, following the onset
of the agricultural depression. Losses there
presumably accounted largely for the fall in
the total number of inhabited houses in St.
Briavels parish from 299 in 1871 to 260 in 1881
and 251 in 1891; 15, 48, and 38 unoccupied
dwellings respectively were recorded at those
dates. (fn. 121) By the end of the century, however, the
decline in the number of houses was halted (fn. 122) as
the Hudnalls area began to attract wealthier
private residents, who enlarged some of the
cottages and built new houses. (fn. 123) New building
continued in the 1930s, (fn. 124) when a number of
bungalows and other small dwellings were put
up in the area, and in the later 20th century,
when some more substantial houses were built
and the surviving older cottages were modernized and extended.

At Coldharbour, where a number of lanes meet
at the north-east corner of Hudnalls, a small
hamlet was established on parochial land in the
early 19th century and comprised c. 5 cottages
in 1840. (fn. 125) At Lower Meend, the common below
St. Briavels village, three cottages were recorded
in 1656, (fn. 126) but they possibly did not long survive,
and the main period of settlement there began
c. 1770. (fn. 127) By 1840 there was a total of c. 20 small
stone cottages, scattered on the steep hillside
around a stream. (fn. 128) At the Fence, on the slopes
north of Mork brook, a similar settlement grew
up, containing 6 cottages by 1788 and 11 by
1841. (fn. 129)

In 1327 22 inhabitants of St. Briavels and
Hewelsfield were assessed for the subsidy. (fn. 130)
There were said to be c. 170 communicants in
St. Briavels in 1551 (fn. 131) and 49 households in
1563, (fn. 132) and in 1650 the population was said to
comprise 80 families. (fn. 133) About 1710 the population was estimated at 400 in 80 houses, (fn. 134) and c.
1775 at 766 in 122 houses, (fn. 135) though there is little
other indication of such a substantial rise over
the period and the second figure is probably an
overestimate. In 1801 670 inhabitants in 144
houses were enumerated, the figures evidently
including the settlements that were beginning to
form in the adjoining extraparochial areas. In
1841 the parish contained 585 people in 105
houses, while Lower Meend, the Fence, and the
parts of Hudnalls that were added to the parish
the next year contained 702 people in 161
houses. In 1851 the enlarged parish had a population of 1,194, which rose to 1,315 by 1871 but
then fell to 1,065 by 1901. In the first 70 years
of the 20th century the population fluctuated at
around 1,100, and between 1971 and 1991 it rose
from 1,140 to 1,331. (fn. 136)

In 1600 there were three victualling houses at
St. Briavels, whose owners were presented for
allowing disorderly behaviour and illegal gaming. (fn. 137) By 1721 the George inn, south-east of the
castle, had opened, (fn. 138) and it was possibly the inn
that was called the Castle in 1799, (fn. 139) though in
1702 (fn. 140) and until the early 19th century an alehouse was kept in the castle itself by the gaoler
of the debtors' prison there. (fn. 141) By 1818 the
Plough inn had opened on the west side of High
Street and by 1840 there was a beerhouse, called
the Crown, near Barrow well at the south end
of the village. (fn. 142) The Plough had closed by 1880, (fn. 143)
and the George and the Crown remained open
in 1991.

An ancient ceremony, first found recorded at
the start of the 18th century, involved the distribution of bread and cheese to the poor in St.
Briavels church at Whitsun. By tradition it was
instituted in connexion with a grant of a right of
taking wood in Hudnalls, each parishioner contributing 1d. (later 2d.) in acknowledgment of
the right. (fn. 144) The ceremony was rowdy in the
early 19th century: the dole of bread and cheese
was thrown from the galleries and the congregation scrambled for it on the church floor, (fn. 145)
sometimes using it to pelt the curate. The
rowdiness led to the ceremony being transferred
to the churchyard c. 1857 and later to the road
outside, where it was accompanied with drunkenness and fighting until c. 1890. (fn. 146) In the early
1990s the distribution of the bread and cheese,
which for many years had been organized by one
family, the Creswicks, was made at the old
manor pound near the north end of Bailey
Tump. (fn. 147) Also contributing to the villagers' reputation for unruly behaviour in the early 19th
century was a gathering for cockfighting held on
Whit Monday until suppressed by the curate c.
1845. (fn. 148) A village wake, including sports and
maypole dancing, continued in Whit week in the
1850s. (fn. 149) It presumably took place on Bailey
Tump, where a maypole stood in 1880. (fn. 150)

In 1826 a friendly society held its meetings at
the George inn, (fn. 151) and by 1846 there was a
separate society for women. (fn. 152) The vicar W. T.
Allen, who served the cure from 1867, started a
sick and burial society. (fn. 153) In 1854 C. L. Denton
founded a village reading room and library in a
building at the west end of East Street and he
later provided a billiard and recreation room
there. (fn. 154) At his death in 1892 Denton left legacies
for the benefit of the village. His nephew and
heir O. W. Andrews (fn. 155) gave a site adjoining the
reading room for an assembly room, which was
built in 1924. (fn. 156) The reading room was closed c.
1960 but the assembly room, recently modernized, remained in use in 1991. (fn. 157) The village had
a cricket club by 1897, (fn. 158) and a village playing
field was opened on the north side of East Street
c. 1947. (fn. 159)

MANORS, CASTLE, AND OTHER ESTATES.

A manor at St. Briavels was known as
LYDNEY in 1086 and LITTLE LYDNEY in
the 1160s (fn. 160) but from the 13th century was
generally called the manor of ST. BRIAVELS.
It formed part of Lydney hundred in the 11th
century and had presumably had a tenurial
connexion with Lydney. Alfer held it in 1066, (fn. 161)
and it was possibly among estates given at the
Conquest to William FitzOsbern: his foundation Lire abbey (Eure) later claimed St. Briavels
church and tithes as an adjunct to Lydney
church. Wihanoc, lord of Monmouth, may
have later acquired the manor, and in 1086 his
nephew and successor William son of Baderon
held it, extended at six hides. In 1144 William's son and successor to the lordship of
Monmouth, Baderon of Monmouth, confirmed
St. Briavels church to Wihanoc's foundation
Monmouth priory, against which Lire had later
to establish its right, and at the same period the
place was named as Lydney Baderon. (fn. 162) No
certain evidence has been found, however, that
Baderon was in possession of St. Briavels in
1144, and it is likely that the manor had already
passed from his family to the Crown, for in 1130
St. Briavels castle was recorded as a royal castle.
Castle and manor later became established as
the administrative centre of the Forest and as
the head of a hundred or liberty of St. Briavels. (fn. 163)

In 1130 the hereditary sheriff of Gloucestershire,
Miles of Gloucester, later earl of Hereford, accounted for the wages of a knight and other officers
of St. Briavels castle. (fn. 164) He presumably then had
custody of the castle under the Crown, and is
by tradition credited with building it. (fn. 165) In 1139
Empress Maud granted the castle together with
the Forest of Dean to Miles in fee. (fn. 166) The grant
presumably included the manor adjoining the
castle: by tradition it was Miles who gave rights
in Hudnalls to the men of St. Briavels, (fn. 167) and he
made a grant of a forge at St. Briavels between
1141 and his death in 1143. (fn. 168) The castle and the
Forest were exempted from lands that Henry
II confirmed to Miles's son, Roger, earl of
Hereford, in 1154 or 1155, (fn. 169) and from 1160 the
castle was recorded in possession of the Crown's
custodians of the Forest. (fn. 170) During the next two
centuries the castle and manor of St. Briavels, (fn. 171) together with Newland manor and the
profits of the Forest, were appurtenant to the
offices of constable of St. Briavels and warden
of the Forest, held during royal pleasure at an
annual farm. (fn. 172) In 1341 the constable Guy Brian
was given tenure of his office for life. On his
death in 1390 (fn. 173) castle, manors, and Forest, which
for convenience will be here termed the St.
Briavels castle estate, passed under a reversionary grant, quit of the farm, to Thomas, duke of
Gloucester, whose grant was converted to one
in tail male in 1391. (fn. 174) After the duke's death and
forfeiture in 1397 the estate was granted for life
at farm to Thomas le Despenser, earl of
Gloucester, (fn. 175) who forfeited it in 1399. (fn. 176) Henry
IV then gave it in fee to his son John, later duke
of Bedford, who died without issue in 1435. (fn. 177)
From that time the St. Briavels castle estate was
separated tenurially from the constableship and
wardenship, though for much of the 17th and
18th centuries the same people held the lease of
the estate and, under a separate royal patent, the
two offices. (fn. 178)

In 1437 the Crown assigned one third of the
St. Briavels castle estate as dower to the duke of
Bedford's widow Jacquette of Luxembourg,
who had married Richard Woodville, (fn. 179) later
Lord Rivers. She surrendered her right c. 1466,
when it was granted to William Herbert, later
earl of Pembroke, who was executed in 1469. (fn. 180)
The remainder of the estate was granted for
seven years from 1436 to Richard Beauchamp,
earl of Warwick, and at his death in 1439 to
Ralph Botiller and John Beauchamp for their
lives. (fn. 181) In 1445 the reversion of the whole estate
was granted in fee to Henry Beauchamp, duke
of Warwick (d. 1446), (fn. 182) whose sister and heir
Anne and her husband Richard Neville, earl of
Warwick, were dealing with the estate in 1466. (fn. 183)
Anne released her right to the Crown in 1488 (fn. 184)
but other evidence suggests that the Crown had
the whole estate in hand from 1476 or earlier. (fn. 185)

In 1490 the Crown leased the St. Briavels
castle estate to Thomas Baynham, and the lease
was renewed to him and his son Christopher for
30 years in 1498. (fn. 186) The Baynhams remained in
possession to the end of their term in 1528 (fn. 187)
when a lease was granted to Sir William Kingston (fn. 188) (d. 1540). Sir William's son, Sir Anthony
Kingston, had a 21-year lease from 1547, (fn. 189) which
he immediately assigned to William Guise of
Elmore. Guise renewed the lease, (fn. 190) and at his
death in 1574 was succeeded by his son John (d.
1588), (fn. 191) who secured an assignment of a 30-year
lease granted in 1583 to the Lord Chancellor,
Sir Thomas Bromley. (fn. 192) In 1591 the estate was
held by John Guise's eldest son William during
the minority of a younger son John. (fn. 193) In 1611 a
40-year lease was granted to William Herbert,
earl of Pembroke, (fn. 194) and he assigned some of his
rights in 1612 to Sir Richard Catchmay, who
remained in possession of them in 1638. (fn. 195) The
earl (d. 1630) was succeeded by his brother
Philip, who renewed the lease for 40 years in
1640; Newland manor was then specified as part
of the estate for the first time, but it had probably
been included since 1490. Philip, earl of Pembroke, who sided with parliament in the Civil
War, died in 1650, (fn. 196) and his assignees apparently
retained the lease until the Restoration when one
of them conveyed it to Henry Somerset, Lord
Herbert. Somerset, later marquess of Worcester
and duke of Beaufort, held the St. Briavels castle
estate until his death in 1700, securing a renewal
of the lease from Queen Catherine, who had
been given the estate as part of her dower in
1665. The duke's widow Mary retained the
estate (fn. 197) until 1706 or later and apparently sold
the lease to James Berkeley (d. 1736), earl of
Berkeley, who had a new lease from the Crown
in 1727. The earl's descendants, Augustus (d.
1755), earl of Berkeley, Frederick Augustus (d.
1810), earl of Berkeley, and William FitzHardinge Berkeley, Lord Segrave, remained lessees (fn. 198)
until 1838. Lord Segrave was then succeeded as
lessee by the former steward of the estate William Roberts, a Coleford solicitor, who held the
estate until 1858. (fn. 199) From then the manorial
rights of St. Briavels and Newland were kept in
hand by the Crown, (fn. 200) but in 1991 were managed
for it by the Forestry Commission. (fn. 201)

The only land in the parish held in demesne
with the castle and manor in the modern
period was that called St. Briavels park, which
was recorded from 1437 when it was extended
at 100 a. (fn. 202) The main part of the park was a
group of closes south-east of the village, adjoining Hewelsfield Lane, and it also included
land called Just Reddings adjoining the Bream
road. (fn. 203) On the main part a barn was built in
1751-2 and, before 1795, a small farmhouse
known as Park Farm, which was rebuilt in
1825. In the late 17th century and the 18th the
park, comprising 106 a., was held on 21-year
leases under the Crown's lessees. (fn. 204) It was sold
by the Crown in the mid 19th century, before
1875, (fn. 205) most of it becoming part of Highgrove
farm. (fn. 206) The farmhouse was replaced by a
group of private houses in the 1980s. The
other main assets of the St. Briavels castle
estate in the modern period were drawn from
the Forest area as a whole and comprised chief
rents paid for the manors and assarted lands
of the liberty of St. Briavels, herbage money
owed by bordering parishes and tithings for
rights of common in the Forest, and a customary
payment from quarry owners. The lessees gave
up collecting the quarry rents in 1819 (fn. 207) and the
herbage money c. 1835, (fn. 208) and the chief rents
were redeemed between the 1860s and the
1930s. (fn. 209)

St. Briavels castle (fn. 210) stands in the village on
the edge of a ridge at c. 200 m. above the river
Wye. The earliest part of the defences was
evidently the low motte at the south. It presumably carried a stone or timber tower by
1130, but later in the 12th century a square
stone keep, said to have been c. 100 ft. high, (fn. 211)
was built on the motte. Probably by the early
13th century a curtain wall was built, raised
on an earth bank and surrounded by a broad
moat. An area of 1½ a., roughly oval-shaped,
was enclosed by the defences, but Bailey
Tump, the triangular spur of ground projecting towards the valley west of the moat, and a
similar-shaped area on the level ground to the
east, on which side the original main entrance
into the castle is thought to have been, appear
to have once formed part of the castle grounds.
The castle site was extraparochial until the mid
19th century. (fn. 212)

Substantial expenditure on the castle in the
years 1209-11 may have included the cost of the
two-storeyed, domestic range on the north-west.
It included two principal first-floor rooms,
which were probably the royal apartments that
were mentioned in 1227 and 1255. (fn. 213) King John
stayed at the castle at least five times in his
reign, (fn. 214) Henry III was there four times in the
1220s and 1230s and visited again in 1256, (fn. 215) and
Edward II came there in 1321 when his baronial
opponents were levying forces in the Marches. (fn. 216)
The castle's main functions in the early Middle
Ages, however, were as the headquarters of the
constable-warden, a prison for those attached
and awaiting bail for forest offences, (fn. 217) and an
arsenal for locally manufactured weapons. (fn. 218)
North of the domestic range, a strong keep-like
gatehouse, the principal surviving feature of the
castle, (fn. 219) was built in 1292-3 on the orders of
Edward I. It comprises a pair of three-storeyed
towers, which project into the moat beyond the
curtain wall and original north gateway, and a
long central passage to which access was controlled by a drawbridge and portcullis at the front
entrance and by internal portcullisses at the
entrances to the rooms leading from it. Soon
afterwards a two-storeyed chapel block, possibly
replacing a wooden chapel that was ordered to
be built adjoining the king's chamber in 1237,
was added to the east of the domestic range
across the axis of the entrance passage. At the
same period, possibly c. 1310 when a 'peel' was
ordered for the added security of the castle, the
curtain wall was extended to take in a small area
south of the keep. There was a small tower or
bastion where the new wall rejoined the original
curtain at the south-east corner of the castle.
Other buildings adjoining the curtain wall on the
east included a hearth or forge, possibly that
used for the manufacture of crossbow bolts
during the 13th century. A tall chimney rising
from the buildings on that side had a cap in the
form of a forester's horn, which in the late 18th
or early 19th century was moved to the west
domestic range. (fn. 220)

In the modern period the castle was used for
holding the hundred leet and a court for civil
actions in St. Briavels hundred and as a gaol for
debtors imprisoned by the latter. The courts and
the gaol, which continued until 1842, were
among the responsibilities of the constable of St.
Briavels, while the castle and the obligation of
its upkeep were vested in the Crown lessee, but
as the office and the lease were for so long held
by the same people the distinction became
blurred. (fn. 221) The courts were held in parts of the
west range: in 1804 the former chapel served as
the courtroom and the southernmost room of
the former royal apartments as a jury room,
while the west tower of the gatehouse housed
the gaol and the gaoler and his family. (fn. 222) The
north part of the royal apartments was roofless
by the late 18th century (fn. 223) and was used to
impound cattle illegally pastured in St. Briavels
and Newland manors (fn. 224) until 1866 when the
Crown built a new manor pound outside the
castle. (fn. 225) Unused parts of the castle were allowed
to decay, and in 1680 much was said to have
been demolished. (fn. 226) The keep survived in a ruined state in 1732 (fn. 227) but part fell in 1752 and the
remainder c. 1774. (fn. 228) In 1777 the decrepit state
of the surviving buildings caused the Crown to
allow Lord Berkeley £372 for repairs out of the
fine for renewing his lease; parts later repaired (fn. 229)
included the top of the east tower of the
gatehouse, which was in ruins in 1732 and
1775 but had been reroofed by 1807. (fn. 230) In 1798,
however, Thomas James, who held the courts
in the castle as Lord Berkeley's deputy constable and steward, complained that the state of
the roof and windows was a danger to his
health in the winter months. (fn. 231)

After the Crown took the castle in hand in the
mid 19th century the courtroom was used for
some years as the parish school and other parts
were let as a dwelling, one tower of the gatehouse
being occupied in 1879. (fn. 232) About 1898, (fn. 233) to form
a more substantial residence, the gatehouse and
the west domestic range were restored and partly
remodelled, though some of the original internal
features were preserved. The castle was let as a
private house until 1939, and, after housing an
evacuated school during the war, it was let in
1948 to the Youth Hostels Association. It remained in use as a youth hostel in 1991,
management of the property having been transferred from the Crown Estate to the Department
of Environment in 1982. (fn. 234) The moat was drained
in the mid 19th century, (fn. 235) and after 1961 a Moat
Society, formed by the villagers, cleared it of
undergrowth and laid it out as a public garden. (fn. 236)

A small estate at St. Briavels, later called
HATHAWAYS manor, was held from the
Crown by the service of chief serjeant-in-fee, or
chief forester, of Dean. The obligations of the
holders included the maintenance of an underforester, styled the bowbearer, to patrol the
Forest on foot, and their perquisites included
the right to course with dogs outside the covert
and an allowance of venison, interpreted from
the early 17th century as the shoulder of every
deer killed and 10 fee bucks and 10 fee does
annually. (fn. 237) The manor and forestership were
presumably held by Nigel Hathaway, who was
named first among the serjeants-in-fee of the
Forest in 1220, (fn. 238) and by William Hathaway,
apparently Nigel's son, who died before 1250.
William's widow married Philip Wyther, who
bought the wardship of his land and heir. (fn. 239) In
1282 the chief forester was another William
Hathaway, (fn. 240) who was also constable of St. Briavels from 1287 to 1291. (fn. 241) At his death c. 1317
William held a house, 24 a. of land, and 30s. free
rent by his service as chief forester and, an
obligation not found mentioned later, of finding
an armed horseman to serve at the castle in
wartime. He was succeeded by his son William, (fn. 242)
(fl. 1338). (fn. 243) The manor may have passed by the
1350s to Walter Hathaway, (fn. 244) and Thomas
Hathaway died holding it in 1376. Thomas's
heirs were three daughters, (fn. 245) among whom his
estates were partitioned in 1382, when Isabel,
who married Thomas Walwyn, received her
share and shares were allotted to Sibyl and Ellen
to await their coming of age. (fn. 246) By 1431
Hathaways manor had passed to Robert Greyndour, (fn. 247) and it then descended with his Clearwell
estate (fn. 248) until 1680 when Sir Baynham Throckmorton settled it on three of his daughters,
Elizabeth and Mary (both d. 1684) and Carolina. (fn. 249) In 1710 Carolina and her husband James
Scrymsher sold the manor to Francis Wyndham,
and Hathaways then descended once more with
Clearwell. (fn. 250)

In the early 18th century Hathaways manor
comprised only chief rents and two closes,
one of which, Hathaways orchard north-east
of the churchyard, had presumably been the
site of the house. (fn. 251) By 1787 the post of bowbearer had come to be regarded as a distinct
office held by the chief forester, then Charles
Edwin of Clearwell, in person; Edwin's statement then that as bowbearer he was required
to attend, accompanied by six men clothed in
green, when the sovereign came to hunt in
Dean may have included a degree of romantic
embellishment. The chief foresters continued
to claim their fee venison (fn. 252) until the deer were
cleared from the Forest in the early 1850s but
in the last years only one buck was taken
annually. (fn. 253)

A group of small estates at St. Briavels, each
originally a house and 12 a., was held by other
serjeants-in-fee of the Forest, who performed
their office on foot, whereas the chief forester
went on horseback. The king's serjeants of St.
Briavels were mentioned in 1216. (fn. 254) At various
times during the 13th century between 6 and
11 serjeanties-in-fee of the Forest (apart from
the chief forestership) were listed, (fn. 255) though
only 5 are known for certain to have been
attached to estates at St. Briavels, and most of
those holding them in the 13th century and the
early 14th had other estates, in Newnham,
Lydney, or Awre, and possibly did not actually
reside. In later centuries the holders were
usually called foresters-in-fee, (fn. 256) but, to avoid
confusion with the woodwards of the Forest's
bailiwicks who had that style in the Middle
Ages, they are termed serjeants-in-fee in this
account.

One serjeanty at St. Briavels was held by
William of Lasborough (d. c. 1261), passing to
his daughter Agatha and her husband Henry of
Dean (fn. 257) (d. c. 1292). (fn. 258) In 1297 Agatha gave 10 a.
of her 12 a. to Richard of Dean, (fn. 259) and Henry of
Dean apparently held a serjeanty in 1338. (fn. 260)
Another Richard of Dean gave the land and
serjeanty to John of Monmouth in 1342. (fn. 261)
Roger and Richard Wyther were among the
serjeants-in-fee listed in 1220, (fn. 262) and Richard's
son Walter (fn. 263) held one of the St. Briavels serjeanties in 1252 (fn. 264). Walter Wyther (d. 1270) was
succeeded by his son-in-law William Boter (fn. 265) (d.
c. 1285), (fn. 266) and Philip Boter was apparently a
serjeant-in-fee in 1338. (fn. 267) Alexander of Stears
was a serjeant in 1220 and 1250, and in the early
14th century a family of that name, who owned
Stears manor in Newnham, held one of the St.
Briavels estates. (fn. 268) It was evidently that serjeanty
that passed to William Aylburton, who owned
land at St. Briavels and Stears manor at his death
in 1539. (fn. 269) Another estate, probably held by
Robert son of Warren before 1250, (fn. 270) passed to
Thomas Warren (fl. 1282), to William Warren
(d. 1348), to William's son John (fl. 1364), and
to William Warren (d. 1419). (fn. 271) A fifth estate was
possibly held by Martin of Box (fl. 1220) and by
William and Geoffrey of Box cliff, who were
mentioned as serjeants at different times in the
early 13th century. (fn. 272) It passed to Ellen of Box,
who was succeeded before 1276 by Robert of
Awre. (fn. 273) That or another Robert of Awre died
holding it before 1326 and was succeeded by his
son John (fn. 274) (fl. 1338). (fn. 275) One estate was evidently
represented c. 1451 by 8s. 4d. rent in St. Briavels
acquired with a serjeanty by John Wyrall, (fn. 276) who
is depicted with his accoutrements of office on a
tomb at Newland. (fn. 277)

The houses and estates of the serjeants-in-fee
have not been identified and their later history
is obscure. The owners of Box manor in Awre,
a former estate of William of Lasborough, (fn. 278) were
serjeants-in-fee in 1637 and later, suggesting
that some of the serjeanties had become annexed
by association to estates outside the parish, but
most of the eight serjeanties listed until the late
18th century apparently descended by inheritance rather than tenure. (fn. 279)

An estate called the manor of STOWE was
based on a hermitage and a castle on the ridge
in the north part of St. Briavels between the
Stowe valley and the valley of Slade brook. The
hermitage was recorded in 1220 when it was
served by chaplains appointed by the Crown. (fn. 280)
In 1226 Henry III granted it with 2 ploughlands
and pasture rights to Grace Dieu abbey (Mon.),
then newly founded by John of Monmouth, who
was constable of St. Briavels from 1216 to c.
1224. The abbey undertook to establish a chantry of three monks at the hermitage to celebrate
for the king's ancestors, and the gift, made
during pleasure, was converted to a grant in free
alms in 1227. (fn. 281) In 1338 Edward III added 36 a.
of his demesne waste at Wyegate and 'Long field'
to the endowment, (fn. 282) some of it evidently within
Newland parish, where land on the east side of
Wyegate Green belonged to the owner of Stowe
manor in 1608. (fn. 283) In 1361 Grace Dieu abbey
claimed that it was unable to maintain the
chantry because of the loss of common pasture
in adjoining lands which had been taken into
cultivation; the Crown allowed the chantry, then
said to be served by two monks, to be transferred
to the abbey itself. (fn. 284) The estate at Stowe remained a grange of the abbey. (fn. 285)

In 1554 the Crown sold Stowe manor to
Thomas Carpenter and William Savage, (fn. 286) and
in 1556 Carpenter conveyed it to William
Warren and his wife Marian, (fn. 287) whose family,
the Catchmays, had been lessees of the site of
the manor from 1488 or earlier. In 1559 Warren granted a 40-year lease to William Wyrall
of English Bicknor. (fn. 288) William Warren died in
1573, (fn. 289) having settled Stowe on the marriage
of his daughter Joan with George ap Robert
(or Probert). In 1582 Joan, by then a widow,
had a release of right from Thomas James of
Bristol, son of her sister Margaret, and in 1584
she had a similar release from George Gough
of Hewelsfield, who had married a third sister,
Mary. (fn. 290) Joan later married William Carpenter,
whom she survived, and died in 1617. Her son
William Probert succeeded to Stowe, (fn. 291) and he
and his son Henry conveyed the manor house
called Stowe Grange and the bulk of the estate
to William Hoskins in 1627 and outlying parts
to others in 1629. (fn. 292) William Hoskins (d. 1661
or 1662), a cooper of Southwark (Surr.), left
his Stowe estate to a cousin Kedgwin
Hoskins, (fn. 293) whose son Kedgwin (d. 1685 or
1686) devised to his wife Mary the reversion,
after his father's death. (fn. 294) The son of the
younger Kedgwin, also called Kedgwin, had
succeeded by 1696 (fn. 295) and in 1735 added a farm
(later called Mork farm) at Mork Green. He died
in 1743 (fn. 296) and his widow Alice apparently held
Stowe until her death in 1756. (fn. 297) Their son
Kedgwin (d. 1764) and his son Kedgwin (d.
1834), both of whom lived at Platwell in Clearwell, held the estate in succession. The latter left
it to his brother-in-law, the Revd. John Hoskins,
and then to John's son Kedgwin Hoskins (fn. 298) who
had succeeded by 1840. (fn. 299) That Kedgwin (d.
1852) used his estate as securicy in his banking
business, carried on with partners at Hereford
and Ross-on-Wye (Herefs.), and his mortgagees
and trustees sold Mork farm to James White of
Lindors in 1855 and Stowe Grange with 190 a.
to Edwin Cook in 1857. (fn. 300) Cook sold his estate c.
1867 to the owners of the Clearwell estate (fn. 301) and
it was among farms of that estate that were
bought by the Crown Commissioners of Woods
in 1912. (fn. 302) In 1991 the land was farmed by the
Crown's tenant of the adjoining Longley farm,
in Newland, Stowe Grange having been sold in
1971. (fn. 303)

The site of the castle, at the north end of the
estate commanding a route up the Stowe valley
from the Wye, is a substantial circular rampart.
Much rubble stonework is strewn around but
may derive from quarrying rather than from
buildings. Presumably built for the Crown soon
after the Conquest, the castle may have been
occupied only for a short period until the establishment of St. Briavels castle on a stronger site
and one more effective for controlling the Wye
crossing at Bigsweir. In 1310, in the only early
reference found to it, the castle at Stowe was
called the 'old castle'. (fn. 304) The hermitage stood on
the ridge to the south-west. (fn. 305) The bases of the
walls of a small single-celled building, which had
a chamfered doorway on the north-west side,
survive there among later farm buildings. The
site probably included a graveyard for those
serving the chapel, for skeletons were discovered
during foundation work for a barn built in
1912. (fn. 306) Under a lease granted by Grace Dieu
abbey in 1418 the lessee agreed to build a
suitable house on the grange (fn. 307) and perhaps from
that date there was a house at the site of Stowe
Grange, which stands by the road below the
chapel at the foot of a steep bank. A low wing
towards the road incorporates a late 16th-century doorway and trusses, which are probably in
situ, but the rest of the house dates from the late
17th century and has a short main range with
central three-storeyed porch and a stair projection at the rear.

About 1350 John Joce of Newland owned an
estate called the manor of ST. BRIAVELS,
comprising numerous small tenant holdings at
Mork and elsewhere. The manor later descended
to Joce's descendants, owners of the Clearwell
estate; Robert Greyndour held a court for it
in the early 1440s. (fn. 308) In the late 15th century it
was composed mainly of small freeholds owing
chief rents, (fn. 309) and it has not been found separately recorded among the estates of the
owners of Clearwell after 1669. (fn. 310) Several other
estates in St. Briavels which descended with
Clearwell at various periods are traced above
and below.

An estate called RODMORE on the east side
of the parish was recorded from 1294, having
evidently been formed by assarting. It was called
a manor in 1294, a status not accorded it later,
and was held by Ralph Hathaway, who had
licence to establish a chantry in a chapel he had
built there. (fn. 311) Ralph died c. 1316, holding a house
and 30 a. at Rodmore, for which he owed rent
and suit of court at St. Briavels castle. He also
then had 60½ a. of new assart land at 'le Horestone', which was probably further north near
the Long stone on the later Closeturf farm,
where his successors owned land in the early
16th century. Ralph was succeeded by his son
William, (fn. 312) and Ralph, son and heir of William
Hathaway of Rodmore, was mentioned in
1374. (fn. 313) In 1498 Rodmore was apparently owned
by another William Hathaway, who settled lands
on his wife Joan for her life in 1509. His heir
Richard Hathaway confirmed the settlement in
1514. (fn. 314) In 1608 Rodmore belonged to Thomas
James (fn. 315) of Soilwell, Lydney, and it remained in
possession of the Jameses of Soilwell (fn. 316) until
1689, when they sold it to Thomas Morgan of
Tintern (Mon.). (fn. 317) It was apparently sold to
William Ford in 1711, (fn. 318) and he owned it at his
death in 1733, his widow Mary retaining it to c.
1746. (fn. 319) Thomas James owned it in 1791 (fn. 320) and he
or a later Thomas James owned Rodmore Farm
with 205 a. in 1840. (fn. 321) A Thomas James died in
possession of Rodmore and the adjoining
Willsbury farm c. 1885, and his son William sold
the two farms in 1892 to W. B. Marling of
Clanna, Alvington. Marling added Highgrove
farm to his estate the same year, giving him c.
560 a. of farmland in St. Briavels parish. (fn. 322)
Rodmore was part of the Clanna estate until
1939 or later. (fn. 323) In 1991, comprising 170 a., it
was owned and farmed by Mr. R. W. James.
The farmhouse was rebuilt c. 1700 as a tall,
single-depth range with a projecting stair turret
at the rear and a front with a pediment and an
elaborate stone doorcase. The interior was extensively refitted and modernized c. 1970. (fn. 324)
Hathaways fields and Hathaways barn, which
form part of the farm, (fn. 325) were presumably named
from its earliest owners, but they were in a
different ownership during the 17th and 18th
centuries. (fn. 326)

At WILLSBURY, adjoining Rodmore to the
north-east, Adam, the reeve of St. Briavels
manor, apparently acting illegally, built a house
shortly before 1270. (fn. 327) John Malemort, son of
Richard Malemort of Willsbury, was mentioned
c. 1300. (fn. 328) John Gainer of Willsbury was mentioned in 1385 (fn. 329) and another John Gainer of
Willsbury in 1462. (fn. 330) Christopher Gainer sold a
house and land there to John ap Gwyllym in
1539. (fn. 331) Willsbury was possibly acquired later
by William Warren (d. 1573), passing to his
daughter Mary and her husband George
Gough of Hewelsfield. (fn. 332) Their son Warren
Gough (d. 1636) settled a capital messuage and
lands at Willsbury on his wife Dorothy with
reversion to trustees for his son Richard's
children. (fn. 333) William Gough, Richard's son,
owned Willsbury in 1689 when he settled it,
reserving a life interest in some lands and part
of the house, on the marriage of his son
Charles. William was living on his Pastor's
Hill estate, in Bream, in 1708, and in 1724
Charles settled Willsbury on his own son William. (fn. 334) William Gough (d. 1773) (fn. 335) was succeeded
by his son the Revd. James Gough or Aubrey,
who sold Willsbury in 1791 to Thomas Evans.
Evans (d. 1832) left the estate in trust to provide
an annuity for his son Thomas, who was living
at Willsbury in 1845. On the younger Thomas's
death the trustees were to convey Willsbury to
his daughter Eleanor, and she and her husband,
Dr. Symeon Bartlett, owned Willsbury House
and 140 a. in 1853. The Bartletts sold the estate
in 1864 to Thomas James, (fn. 336) with whose Rodmore farm it passed to the Clanna estate; W. B.
Marling sold the farm in 1920 to the tenant E.
W. Miles. (fn. 337) The house later passed into separate
ownership from the land, which in 1991 was
owned and farmed, with Great Dunkilns and
Severn View farms, by N. & K. Cooke and
Sons. (fn. 338)

At Willsbury House a three-storeyed, early
17th-century porch on the west front marks
the division between the tall, originally gabled,
principal rooms at the north end of the house
and the lower, service rooms at the south end.
In the late 18th century or the early 19th the
house was remodelled: the gables on the east
and west fronts were replaced by a full storey,
most of the windows were replaced by sashes,
a new staircase was inserted, and additions
were made at the service end. Considerable
internal alterations were made in the mid and
later 20th century. An octagonal lodge in Tudor
style was built on the Bream road in 1850 (fn. 339) and
was later extended. At the south end of the farm,
near Rodmore grove, the owners had a large
fishpond in 1689. (fn. 340) By the mid 19th century it
had been filled in. (fn. 341)

An estate by the river Wye called BIGSWEIR had its origin in lands belonging to the
bishop of Hereford, presumably once forming
part of his Wyeseal estate, based in the adjoining part of Newland. (fn. 342) In 1310 Thomas
Mushet sold to William Joce a house and lands
by the Wye, held from the bishop, together
with lands nearby, at Lindhurst, that
Thomas had recently acquired from William
Hathaway. (fn. 343) In 1320 William Joce conveyed
the lands to his son Philip, and they later
descended with the Clearwell estate. In 1445
Joan Greyndour leased them, including a
house called Philip Joce's Place which was
perhaps at the site of Bigsweir House, to
Thomas Catchmay. Catchmay already held
other lands in the same part of the parish (fn. 344) and
he or one of his successors acquired the freehold
of Joan's land. (fn. 345) John Catchmay of Bigsweir was
mentioned in 1509 (fn. 346) and Thomas Catchmay of
Bigsweir in 1555. (fn. 347) By 1608 the Bigsweir estate
was held by George Catchmay, (fn. 348) who then employed at least eight servants. (fn. 349) George (d. c.
1617) was succeeded by his son Sir Richard
Catchmay (fl. 1638), (fn. 350) and by 1649 Bigsweir had
passed to Sir William Catchmay, (fn. 351) who was
succeeded by his son Tracy Catchmay (fn. 352) (d.
1708). (fn. 353) Tracy's widow Barbara held the estate
during the minority of his son William, (fn. 354) who
died in 1743. William was succeeded by his
sister Jane and her husband James Rooke (d.
1773). (fn. 355) The estate, which in 1787 comprised
Bigsweir House, Lindors Farm, and 430 a. of
farmland and woodland, (fn. 356) descended in direct
line to James Rooke (d. 1805), who reached
the rank of general in his military career,
James (d. by 1823), and George. (fn. 357) George
Rooke much enlarged the estate by purchases
of land and woods in St. Briavels and Newland (fn. 358) and died in 1839, leaving it for life to
his aunt Hannah, wife of George Worrall. She
assumed the name and arms of Rooke after her
husband's death in 1840, and sold her interest
in 1848 to Willoughby Sandilands Rooke, later
Colonel Rooke, who had the reversion under
George Rooke's will. (fn. 359) W. S. Rooke died in
1891 and the estate, which also included Pilstone House and lands in Llandogo on the
Monmouthshire bank of the river, passed to his
son George Douglas Willoughby Rooke (fl.
1953). (fn. 360) George was succeeded by his grandson
J. C. O. R. Hopkinson, later Major-General
Hopkinson, the owner in 1991. (fn. 361) Bigsweir
House, which stands on the river bank by the
site of the weir and ford, was rebuilt in the early
18th century as a stone house of two storeys and
attics with a symmetrical five-bayed front. Additions were made later to the south-west end
and at the rear.

A house called GREAT HOUSE, at Tilthams
Tump on Mork Lane, and an estate lying in and
around the Slade brook valley belonged to the
Whittington family in the early 17th century. In
1609 Richard Whittington conveyed the estate
to his son Thomas, (fn. 362) who sold it piecemeal
between 1610 and 1619 to John Gonning, a
merchant and later mayor of Bristol. (fn. 363) Gonning
added other lands during the next 20 years,
including in 1629 a farmhouse and lands bought
from William Probert, former owner of Stowe.
His later purchases were made in conjunction
with his son John (fn. 364) and in 1645, shortly before
his death, he released all his right to John. (fn. 365) The
younger John Gonning, also mayor of Bristol,
died in 1662 (fn. 366) and was succeeded by his son
Robert. Robert, who was knighted, added other
lands. At his death c. 1679 (fn. 367) he owned c. 500 a.
in St. Briavels and adjoining parishes, most of
the St. Briavels land forming a compact block
with Great House at its west end and Bearse
Farm at the east. (fn. 368) Sir Robert Gonning's widow
Anne, who married Sir Dudley North (d.
1691), (fn. 369) retained the estate until her death after
1713, when it reverted to members of the Strode
and Langton families, heirs of Sir Robert's
sisters. (fn. 370) One of the heirs, Mercy Strode, had
married Francis Wyndham of Clearwell, whose
grandson Thomas acquired the rest of the
Strodes' share in 1730 and the Langtons' share
in 1732. (fn. 371) The Great House estate then descended with Clearwell, passing in 1912 to the Crown,
which retained it in 1991. (fn. 372) In the late 17th
century Great House was a substantial gabled
building, (fn. 373) and in 1732 it was described as a large
old mansion. (fn. 374) It was in use as the principal
farmhouse of the estate in 1760. (fn. 375) It was later
demolished, perhaps before 1791 when the bulk
of the land was being farmed from Bearse
Farm, (fn. 376) which remained the farmhouse in 1991.

The AYLESMORE estate in the south part
of the parish belonged in 1670 to Edmund Bond
of Walford (Herefs.) who settled it on the marriage of his second son Edmund. Mary, widow
of the younger Edmund, sold her interest in 1707
to their son Edmund, (fn. 377) who was said to have a
good house and estate c. 1710. (fn. 378) Edmund (d.
1743) devised it to his niece Mary, the wife of
Richard Bond of Brockweir. Richard died in
1754 (fn. 379) and Mary before 1771, the Aylesmore
estate passing to her daughters Frances, wife of
John Prosser, and Elizabeth Eleanor Bond. The
sisters sold it in 1797 to John Mudway, whose
mortgagee Robert Williams gained possession in
1814 and sold the estate, then comprising c. 170
a., to Lawrence Peel of Manchester in 1820. Peel
bought Aylesmore for his son William Henry
Peel, (fn. 380) who enlarged it to an estate of over 1,000
a. by purchases in St. Briavels and Hewelsfield.
By 1840 he owned Aylesmore Court with Highgrove, Dunkilns (later Severn View), and New
House farms in St. Briavels and Hewelsfield
Court and Cowshill farms in Hewelsfield. (fn. 381) W.
H. Peel died in 1872, and in 1876 his trustee sold
the estate to Augustus Smith, whose mortgagee
gained possession before 1881 and split up the
estate. Highgrove farm with 197 a. in St. Briavels was bought by Robert Parnall, who sold it in
1892 to W. B. Marling of Clanna. Aylesmore
Court with the adjoining Hewelsfield Court
farm was bought by John Macpherson and
during the remainder of the 1880s and the early
1890s passed through a rapid succession of
owners and their mortgagees. (fn. 382) Before 1906
Aylesmore Court with a remnant of its estate
was acquired by P. N. Palin (fn. 383) (d. 1933), whose
widow Edith retained it (fn. 384) and was succeeded by
her nephew Roger Fleetwood Hesketh. He sold
it in 1952 to Mr. J. Arnott, who owned the house
with c. 120 a. of land in 1991. (fn. 385) Aylesmore Court,
which stands at the south boundary of the
parish, on the east side of Hewelsfield Lane, is
a plain, square villa of the early 19th century,
presumably built by the Peels soon after 1820.
It was enlarged to the west by a service wing in
the late 19th century. The substantial coach
house and stable block (converted to dwellings
in the 1980s) and the planting of the land to the
south and west to form a small park evidently
date from the rebuilding of the house, and there
is a late 19th-century entrance lodge on the
Chepstow road.

In 1219 when Lire abbey granted Lydney
church and its chapel of St. Briavels to the dean
and chapter of Hereford it reserved to itself a
tenement at St. Briavels held by Hugh Wyther; (fn. 386)
no later record of that land has been found. The
dean and chapter as impropriators of Lydney
owned the corn tithes of St. Briavels parish,
granting them out on long leases. Those tithes
were valued at £50 c. 1710 (fn. 387) and were commuted
for a corn rent charge of £215 in 1840. The
tithes, both great and small, from certain riverside lands then belonged to the landowners
Hannah Rooke of Bigsweir and Warren Jane of
Chepstow, who were each awarded a corn rent
charge of £4 for them. Parochial land that was
found to be exempt from tithes in 1840 (fn. 388) included some riverside land of the Bigsweir
estate, which presumably had once belonged to
the bishop of Hereford, (fn. 389) Abbey Hams opposite
Llandogo, which the duke of Beaufort owned,
evidently as former property of Tintern abbey
(Mon.), (fn. 390) and Rodmore grove, formerly a demesne wood of Llanthony priory's manor of
Alvington. (fn. 391) In 1850 it was decided, on grounds
which are not clear, that 142 a. of the extraparochial land in Hudnalls, Mocking Hazel wood,
and the Fence were tithable to the landowner,
and a corn rent charge of £3 was assigned to the
Rookes of Bigsweir, (fn. 392) who had bought the
Crown's rights in those lands. (fn. 393)

ECONOMIC HISTORY.

Agriculture.

In
1086, when probably only a small part of the
later parish was under cultivation, William son
of Baderon's manor had 2 teams in demesne and
3 servi, while 3 villani and 5 bordars had 2 teams
between them. (fn. 394) In 1224 and in 1246 oxen,
ploughs, and seed were to be provided for
cultivating the demesne land on the royal
manor. (fn. 395) About 1250 the manor had 2 ploughlands in demesne, (fn. 396) and in 1280 arable and
meadowland were worked by salaried farm servants. (fn. 397) The pasture and meadow recorded on
lease from the manor in the 1430s were probably
in St. Briavels park, which was later the only
demesne attached to the St. Briavels castle estate. Rents of assize and some payments for
assarts were the only other profits from land
accounted for in the 1430s (fn. 398) and it is probable
that freeholders, holding by rent and fealty, and
the serjeants-in-fee, holding by their office, constituted the whole tenantry. In the 18th and 19th
centuries all the tenants were freeholders, owing
chief rents and heriots. (fn. 399) Most of the land on the
St. Briavels manor belonging to the Clearwell
estate was held freely in 1431, (fn. 400) and in 1536
Stowe manor received rents from six free tenements as well as from its demesne held at farm. (fn. 401)

The land earliest in cultivation was evidently
in the central part of the parish around the
village, Coldharbour, and St. Briavels park.
There was open-field land in that area, and the
general pattern of land ownership there in the
early 17th century was a fragmentary one in
contrast to the more compact farms of the east
and north-east parts of the parish. (fn. 402) Colpatch
common field adjoining St. Briavels park was
mentioned in 1322, (fn. 403) and in 1608, when an open
field of 7 a. called the Rye field survived beside
Hewelsfield Lane, much of the area east of the
village, bounded by the park, Hewelsfield Lane,
and the Coleford road, was occupied by small,
regularly-shaped closes, perhaps the result of a
planned inclosure. (fn. 404) Over and Nether Wyralls
(later Woralls) common fields, mentioned in
1478, (fn. 405) lay north-east of the village by the Coleford road and still contained 35 a. of open land
in 1608. (fn. 406)

The tenants' right to common pasture in the
royal demesne of the Forest (fn. 407) was exercised
mainly in the detached areas that adjoined their
parish. In Hudnalls they also claimed an ancient
right to cut and take wood at will. Their claim,
which later tradition ascribed to a grant by Miles
of Gloucester, earl of Hereford, (fn. 408) was recorded
in 1282 when they were said to be destroying
the woodland, (fn. 409) and the right was confirmed, but
not clearly defined, by the Dean re-afforestation
Act of 1668. (fn. 410) It was evidently interpreted as
more extensive than the estovers (firebote,
housebote, and hedgebote) claimed by the tenants in other parishes adjoining the Forest; (fn. 411)
probably Hudnalls supplied some of the regular
trade from that part of the Wye Valley to Bristol
in wood for coopers and other craftsmen. (fn. 412) The
men of St. Briavels probably only ever exercised
the right in the north and south-western parts
of Hudnalls, for in the south-eastern part, the
later Hewelsfield common, the men of Hewelsfield appear to have exercised exclusive rights. (fn. 413)

In 1696 and for a few years afterwards the
parish vestry paid a keeper of Hudnalls a salary
of £2, presumably to safeguard the rights to
wood and common pasture. (fn. 414) Unidentified encroachments thrown down at the parish's
expense in 1740 or 1741 were probably in Hudnalls, for legal action against 'offenders in
Hudnalls' was planned or in progress at the same
time. (fn. 415) In the early 19th century, however, the
clearing of land for cultivation and the building
of cottages proceeded unchecked, (fn. 416) so that by
1850 less than 300 a. of the original c. 1,000 a.
in the whole of Hudnalls remained woodland
and waste. (fn. 417) Of the smaller parts of the Forest
demesne surviving in the St. Briavels area in
1787, 10 a. of the Fence had been taken by
cottagers and 15 a. of Mocking Hazel wood had
been encroached by the owner of the Bigsweir
estate. (fn. 418) In 1827 George Rooke, owner of Bigsweir, bought the Crown's rights in Hudnalls, the
Fence, and Mocking Hazel wood, subject to the
parishioners' rights to wood and common pasture, (fn. 419) which they continued to exercise in the
surviving woodland in the north and west parts
of Hudnalls. In 1904 the parish council tried to
prevent G. D. W. Rooke from cutting and
selling underwood there and it was later agreed
that he and the parishioners could take wood for
their own use but not for sale. (fn. 420) The right to
herbage, pannage, and estovers in 150 a. of
woodland in Hudnalls was registered in 1977
under the Commons Act of 1965. (fn. 421) Bearse common did not suffer encroachment, and in 1871
the Crown enclosed 83 a. for its exclusive use,
leaving 24 a. at the south end for those claiming
commoning rights, namely 16 adjoining landowners. (fn. 422) In 1876 W. H. Wyndham Quin, owner
of the Clearwell estate, bought out the rights of
his fellow commoners, and before 1882 he also
bought the Crown's part; the Crown regained
the whole of Bearse common as part of the
Clearwell estate in 1912. (fn. 423)

In the late 18th century (fn. 424) and the earlier 19th
the parish had c. 17 principal farms. In 1818 the
largest ones, which apart from Lindors farm
were on the high, open land in the east and
north-east, were Aylesmore (167 a.), Bearse farm
(160 a.), Rodmore (156 a.), Willsbury, Lindors
farm, and Great Hoggins (each with c. 140 a.),
Stowe Grange (112 a.), and one of the farms
called Dunkilns (101 a.); 115 a. on the east
boundary belonged to the Prior's Mesne Lodge
estate in Lydney parish. Another 7 farms had
between 50 a. and 100 a. By 1840 Bearse farm
had been enlarged to 273 a. and Rodmore and
Stowe Grange to c. 200 a., and the new Highgrove farm (149 a.) had been established on the
Aylesmore estate. In the earlier 19th century
most of the land was tenanted, few of the owners
of the substantial freehold estates farming their
land. (fn. 425) The inclusion of Hudnalls later gave the
parish a large number of independent smallholders, and a total of 100 agricultural occupiers was
returned in 1896 (fn. 426) and 89 in 1926. The pattern
of principal farms remained much the same,
however, with in 1926 3 returned as 150-300 a.
and 13 as 50-150 a. (fn. 427)

The parish had a growing proportion of land
under crops in the late 18th century and the early
19th. The tithable arable land was measured at
785 a. in 1791, (fn. 428) at 1,169 a. (out of a total of 2,619
a. of tithable farmland) in 1818, (fn. 429) and 1,292 a.
(out of a total of 2,691 a.) in 1840. (fn. 430) In 1850 as
much as 400 a. of the land encroached in Hudnalls and the other former extraparochial areas
was under the plough. (fn. 431) In 1818 the 16 farms in
the parish that had over 50 a. of land mostly
grew wheat, barley, and oats, rotated with turnips, clover, or grassland leys as the fodder
crops; almost all of the farms still fallowed some
land each year and on several a fallow was
evidently one whole course in the rotation. (fn. 432) In
1866 in the enlarged parish 1,489 a. were returned as under crops compared with 1,243 a.
of permanent grassland; wheat (453 a.) was the
principal crop, with barley, roots, and clover and
leys, the other main elements in the rotation. (fn. 433)
Totals of 458 cattle, including 143 dairy cows,
and 1,386 sheep were returned. (fn. 434) The general
slump in cereals had reduced the total area
returned as under crops to 895 a. by 1896 (fn. 435) and
to 408 a. by 1926, when only 53 a. of wheat and
12 a. of barley were returned. Dairying and stock
raising became a significant activity over the
period, with a total of 826 cattle, including 267
cows in milk, being returned in 1926. (fn. 436) St.
Briavels had a reputation for producing good
cider in the late 18th century, (fn. 437) and 125 a. of
orchards were returned in 1896. (fn. 438) Almost all had
been grubbed up by 1991.

By 1991 many of the smallholdings and small
farms in the Hudnalls area and in and around
the village had gone. In the east and north-east
of the parish some amalgamations of farms had
occurred and some farmhouses had been sold
away from their lands, but the pattern of medium-sized family-run farms remained largely
intact. In 1988 a total of 34 agricultural holdings,
worked by 74 people, was returned in the parish,
though 19 of the smaller ones were worked on a
part-time basis. Dairying was then the principal
enterprise, ten of the larger farms being mainly
so used; a total of c. 650 cows in milk was
returned. Sheep and cattle were raised, and 263
ha. (650 a.) were cropped with wheat, barley, or
maize. (fn. 439) Two large battery egg units, one on the
old portway near Bearse common and the other
south of the Bream road, were built in the mid
1960s by Sterling Poultry Products (fn. 440) and remained in production in 1991.

Mills and Ironworks.

In the era of bloomery
forges St. Briavels was one of the centres of
ironworking in the Forest area. Miles, earl of
Hereford, granted a forge at St. Briavels to
Tintern abbey (Mon.) before 1143. (fn. 441) In 1216 a
royal order for the removal of all forges from the
Forest exempted those belonging to St. Briavels
castle and others held by the serjeants-in-fee,
presumably worked in and around St. Briavels. (fn. 442)
About 1250 the king's great forge belonging to
the castle was found to be an uneconomic enterprise, because more profit could be realized by
selling the wood used to fuel it; (fn. 443) the forge was
reserved in the grant of the castle to an incoming
constable in 1255 (fn. 444) and it was destroyed by royal
order soon afterwards. (fn. 445) Eight men of St. Briavels in 1270 (fn. 446) and at least 13 in 1282 had movable
forges at work in the Forest, presumably in the
parish or its immediate area. (fn. 447) Among them was
Adam, the king's reeve of the manor, who in
1270 was reported to employ eight charcoal
burners and to have destroyed much woodland,
even burning timber that had been assigned for
repairing the castle. (fn. 448) Possibly St. Briavels was
largely deserted by the industry in the latter part
of the bloomery era: it did not figure in a list of
forges in the Forest parishes owing rent to the
Crown in 1437. (fn. 449) The steep hillside immediately
below the village on the west, where waste from
the ironworks was tipped, became known as
Cinder hill (fn. 450) and in 1683 two men paid a landowner in that area £30 a year for licence to dig
cinders. (fn. 451)

In the 13th century and the early 14th iron
produced in the area was used to manufacture
crossbow bolts (quarrels) for the royal armies
and castle garrisons. (fn. 452) Bolts were being made at
St. Briavels under the constable's supervision in
1223, (fn. 453) and in 1228 Henry III sent John de
Malemort, John's brother called William the
smith, and a fletcher to St. Briavels to manufacture them. (fn. 454) John operated there for many years,
provided with his equipment and wages by the
constable. (fn. 455) In 1265 he undertook to produce
25,000 bolts each year. (fn. 456) Large stocks were
stored at the castle and distributed all over
England: in 1237, for example, 20,000 went to
Dover castle (fn. 457) and in 1257 30,000 were sent to
Chester for Henry III's Welsh expedition. (fn. 458) A
John de Malemort, possibly the son of the man
sent in 1228, remained at work at St. Briavels in
1278, (fn. 459) and the family became well established
locally. (fn. 460) The last record found of the manufacture of bolts at St. Briavels was in 1335 when
the king's fletcher and ten other fletchers were
employed there. (fn. 461)

William son of Baderon's manor included a
mill in 1086. (fn. 462) The constable of St. Briavels had
orders to build one in 1283 (fn. 463) and one belonged
to the castle and manor in 1331. (fn. 464) There was a
mill at Mork, paying rent to the Joce family, by
c. 1350. (fn. 465) It was perhaps at the site of the later
Mork mill, just above the crossing of Mork
brook by the old road from St. Briavels village,
but there may have been more than one mill at
Mork in the Middle Ages: in the 1430s both the
Clearwell estate (fn. 466) and the royal manor were
receiving chief rents from mills in the hamlet. (fn. 467)
A fulling mill and a dyehouse were built at or
immediately adjoining the site of Mork mill
shortly before 1688, when they were sold to
Thomas Dale, owner of the nearby Mork Farm.
The mill and dyehouse were worked in 1688 (fn. 468)
and until 1709 or later by Thomas Hunt, dyer. (fn. 469)
By 1775 Mork mill was part of an estate of the
Foley family in the parish, (fn. 470) and in 1789 it was
owned and worked as a corn mill by John
Ansley. (fn. 471) It continued to grind corn until 1874
when it was bought by the owner of Lindors,
the new house built on the site of Mork Farm. (fn. 472)
The stone-built mill and millhouse became outbuildings to the house, and by 1991 had been
restored and altered to form a dwelling.

A mill further down Mork brook, just above
the old Monmouth-Brockweir road, was called
Stert Mill in 1320 and later Wye's Mill. It was
included in a lease of land at Bigsweir that Joan
Greyndour made to Thomas Catchmay in 1445,
and in 1648 it was on lease to Sir William
Catchmay, who may have acquired the freehold
from the Throckmortons of Clearwell in that
year. (fn. 473) It remained part of the Bigsweir estate, (fn. 474)
and was recorded until 1830. (fn. 475)

A water corn mill at an unidentified site stood
on lands owned by Warren Gough of Hewelsfield c. 1630; it had been demolished by the later
17th century. (fn. 476) A mill, sometimes called Nedgetop Mill, stood on Slade brook in Slade bottom. (fn. 477)
It belonged to the Whittingtons' Great House
estate in 1609 (fn. 478) and was sold to John Gonning
in 1616. (fn. 479) No record has been found of it after
1688. (fn. 480)

On Cone brook at the south-east corner of the
parish a mill called Wood Mill, (fn. 481) later Rodmore
mill, was recorded from 1349. In the 15th
century it was owned by the Clearwell estate and
was worked as a fulling mill in 1431 and 1478. (fn. 482)
In 1628 it was a corn mill and belonged to the
adjoining Rodmore estate. (fn. 483) An iron furnace was
later built on land adjoining the mill, and Sir
John Winter of Lydney was working it in 1635. (fn. 484)
In 1646 two parliamentary officers Robert
Kyrle, governor of Monmouth, and John Brayne
of Littledean became partners to work the furnace with several other ironworks in the
neighbourhood. (fn. 485) The furnace went out of use
later in the century, but in 1689 the Rodmore
estate included the corn mill and two iron
forges. (fn. 486) The forges at Rodmore were occupied
by John Hanbury in 1719 and remained in his
family's possession in 1746, probably going out
of use then. (fn. 487) The corn mill probably passed
from the Rodmore estate in 1754 when members
of the Ford family conveyed an unidentified mill
to Samuel Stokes. (fn. 488) By 1774 it had been converted to make paper, and in 1789 it was let as
a paper mill (fn. 489) to James Stevens, whose family
bought the freehold in 1805 (fn. 490) and made paper
there until 1842. (fn. 491) By 1863 Rodmore mill was a
corn mill again. It became part of the Clanna
estate in 1903, (fn. 492) and had ceased working by 1919
when it was let with a small farm. (fn. 493) The millhouse dates from the 17th century and is
adjoined by a substantial stone mill building,
which in 1991 was being converted to form part
of the house.

Fisheries.

Fishing rights in the Wye adjoining
St. Briavels were recorded from 1086 when half
a fishery belonged to William son of Baderon's
manor. (fn. 494) Bigs weir, on the river near Bigsweir
House, was mentioned c. 1287 when half of it,
possibly the half adjoining the Welsh bank, was
leased by the bishop of Llandaff to the constable
of St. Briavels; the bishop regained possession
from the constable in 1322. (fn. 495) Half of a weir that
Edward II alienated from the castle and manor
to Tintern abbey (fn. 496) may have been the part of
Bigs weir on the St. Briavels side, for Tintern
held Bigs weir in 1331. (fn. 497) In 1437, however, the
farm of Bigs weir was accounted for as part of
the St. Briavels castle estate, but nothing was
received from it as the weir was in ruins. (fn. 498) Ithel
weir, later called Coed-Ithel weir, further downstream, belonged to the earl marshal's Tidenham
manor but was alienated by him before 1289, (fn. 499)
probably to Tintern which held it in 1331. In
1331 Bigs weir and Ithel weir and others owned
by Tintern on the Wye were reported to have
been heightened so that they impeded navigation; when the bailiff of St. Briavels manor tried
to enforce a royal order to lower the weirs he
was resisted forcibly by the abbot and monks. (fn. 500)
In 1398 the abbot was censured for taking
salmon fry in his fish traps at Ithel weir. (fn. 501) Ithel
weir passed with other property of Tintern to
the earl of Worcester in 1537 (fn. 502) and the earl's
successors, the dukes of Beaufort, later had the
fishing rights on the lower part of the river,
adjoining the detached part of St. Briavels. The
owners of the Bigsweir estate later had the rights
in the upper part of the river, adjoining the main
part of the parish, having presumably become
owners of Bigs weir as well as of fishing rights
which in 1310 belonged to the estate held from
the bishop of Hereford. (fn. 503) New weir, near the
Florence just within the north boundary, was
apparently part of a fishery that belonged to
Wyeseal manor, in Newland. After the Rookes
of Bigsweir bought that manor in the early 19th
century (fn. 504) they had all the fishing rights on the
Gloucestershire bank from Redbrook to a point
opposite Llandogo, and in 1900 they also had
rights on the Monmouthshire bank between
Whitebrook and Llandogo in respect of lands
they owned there. (fn. 505)

During the 17th century and the early 18th
Acts of parliament for improving the Wye navigation provided for the dismantling of the weirs
on the river. (fn. 506) In 1791 a ruined fish house stood
on the duke of Beaufort's land called Abbey
Hams just north of Ithel weir, (fn. 507) and the rights
confirmed to the duke in 1866 as part of his
extensive fishery in the lower Wye included, on
the bank adjoining St. Briavels, a crib at a place
called Turk's Hole, apparently near Abbey
Hams, and a boat and stop net used at CoedIthel. (fn. 508) The Rookes of Bigsweir used cribs and
stop nets adjoining their estate in the 19th
century until 1866 when an inquiry declared the
practice illegal. (fn. 509) In the 1890s the Bigsweir
fishery was leased to Miller Bros. of Chepstow,
who were also tenants of the duke of Beaufort's
Wye fisheries. The duke sold his fishing rights
to the Crown Commissioners of Woods in
1901, (fn. 510) and they passed in the 1920s to the Wye
Board of Conservators. In 1991 the National
Rivers Authority, as successor to the board, held
them, while the Bigsweir estate still owned its
rights. (fn. 511)

Other Industry and Trade.

In 1208 the
Crown established a market at St. Briavels on
Saturdays. (fn. 512) In 1232 the day was changed to
Tuesday and then to Monday (fn. 513) and in 1309 it
was changed again to Tuesday. A fair at Michaelmas was granted in 1309 but moved to the
Nativity of St. Mary in 1318. (fn. 514) In the mid 1430s
the manor claimed two fairs, at St. John before
the Latin Gate and at St. Clement, but they were
not then being held, nor apparently was any
market. (fn. 515) The alterations to the dates suggest
that it was found difficult to establish St. Briavels
as a trading centre. Its central role in the Forest
administration and its ironworking industry
doubtless encouraged some trade in the early
Middle Ages, but later there was little to counteract the relative inaccessibility of the place.
The market and fairs had certainly lapsed by c.
1700. (fn. 516) The only later revival appears to have
been the Midsummer pleasure fair that was held
in the village streets at the start of the 20th
century; it was moved to an outlying site c. 1905
and had lapsed by the 1960s. (fn. 517)

In 1608 11 tradesmen and craftsmen were
mustered from the parish, including a mercer, a
weaver, and a miner, who possibly worked in an
adjoining area, as no iron or coal workings have
been found recorded within the parish. Four
watermen also listed were probably employed on
vessels trading from Brockweir. (fn. 518) Village craftsmen were mentioned with reasonable regularity
later. (fn. 519) In 1811, in an enumeration that evidently
included the outlying extraparochial areas, 11
families were supported by trade compared with
160 by agriculture, and the number of families
suported by trade rose to 30 by 1831. (fn. 520) In 1851
c. 95 men in the enlarged parish followed nonagricultural occupations, about a third of them
living in St. Briavels village and the rest inhabiting the cottages of Lower Meend, Hudnalls,
St. Briavels common, and the part of the riverside adjoining Brockweir. St. Briavels village
was then well supplied with craftsmen, among
them 5 blacksmiths, but it had only a few
shopkeepers and only one professional man, a
surgeon. Among the cottagers of the outlying
areas the woodworking trades were particularly
well represented, with 9 carpenters, 2 hoopmakers, 2 hurdlemakers, and a maker of chairs
enumerated, and more directly the woodlands
gave employment to 8 woodmen and woodcutters and 2 wood dealers. The stoneworking
trades were also well represented, with 8 masons
and 3 tilers living in the outlying areas. (fn. 521) In those
two trades the Hulin family predominated in the
earlier 19th century. Members of the family had
worked stone at St. Briavels since 1713 or earlier, (fn. 522) and in the early 1820s at least six were
masons or tilers there. (fn. 523) Thirteen men, classed
as mariners, sailors, or watermen, lived in the
outlying parts of the parish in 1851, all presumably employed in Brockweir's trade. (fn. 524)

Stone has been quarried extensively in the
parish, and lime burning, recorded from the
early 18th century, (fn. 525) became a significant trade
in the 19th century, usually carried on by farmers as a sideline. By 1840 there were limekilns
at a number of sites, including two at Willsbury
green near Great Hoggins Farm, whose owner
William Alien (fn. 526) had traded as a builder in 1830
when he was one of the contractors for the new
tower of the parish church. (fn. 527) By 1880 kilns and
small quarries were scattered over the eastern,
upland part of the parish. (fn. 528) Lime burning had
by then been further encouraged by the opening
of the Wye Valley railway, and the lime was
carted to the station on the other side of Bigsweir
bridge. Lime burning came to an end in the early
20th century, (fn. 529) but quarrying continued, and a
large quarry at Stowe on the north boundary of
the parish was being worked for roadstone in
1991.

The parish retained a fairly substantial body
of craftsmen in the early 20th century, with 6
masons and 4 carpenters among those listed in
1906. (fn. 530) By 1939 most of the traditional crafts had
died out but 10 sellers of provisions and other
shopkeepers were listed, together with builders,
motor engineers, and a haulage contractor. (fn. 531) St.
Briavels village had a post office with general
store and a butcher's shop in 1991. The number
of visitors attracted there by the castle and the
Wye Valley scenery had encouraged the establishment of a pottery.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

In 1276 return of
writs, assize of bread and ale, gallows, and pleas
of vee de naam were claimed for the royal manor
of St. Briavels. (fn. 532) The manor court was held at
St. Briavels castle with the courts for St. Briavels
hundred, which are described above. (fn. 533) In the
1440s a court was being held for the St. Briavels
manor that belonged to the owners of the Clearwell estate. (fn. 534) A lease of the site of Stowe manor
in 1559 referred to a court being held there,
although in practice it may already have lapsed. (fn. 535)

The accounts of the two churchwardens of St.
Briavels survive for the years 1719-59 and from
1811 (fn. 536) and those of the two overseers of the poor
for 1692-1725, (fn. 537) and there are vestry minutes
from 1833. (fn. 538) In 1745 a rota by houses was made
for filling the offices of churchwarden and overseer. (fn. 539) The parish had two constables in 1718.
In the early 18th century there were usually c.
10 people receiving a weekly dole from the
overseers, and other parishioners were helped
with the payment of house rent. (fn. 540) Payments to
vagrants were causing concern in 1723 and were
ordered to be discontinued. (fn. 541) In 1813 and 1814
the parish gave 26 people regular weekly pay and
more than 40 occasional relief; the total annual
expenditure was c. £460, a sum similar to that
in much more populous parishes like Lydney
and Awre. (fn. 542) In the late 1820s expenditure
reached another peak, at just over £300. (fn. 543) Poor
cottagers living in Hudnalls and other extraparochial areas were then receiving relief from the
parish, and in 1835 it was said that most of the
inhabitants of Hudnalls had their legal settlement in St. Briavels. (fn. 544) By 1828 a workhouse had
been built on Mork Lane at the north end of the
village, and the poor there were farmed out that
year. (fn. 545) By 1833 a select vestry had been formed
and an assistant overseer appointed. In 1836 the
parish gave 19 people weekly pay and housed
another 10, mostly disabled and infirm, in the
workhouse. In that year the parish became part
of the Chepstow poor-law union, which the
ratepayers voted to join in preference to the
Monmouth union. (fn. 546)

In the mid 1840s, following the addition of the
extraparochial areas, the parishioners became
concerned about high rates. In 1846 payers to
the highway rates owning two or more horses
were allowed to contribute part of their assessment by hauling stone and in 1849 all payers
were permitted to meet a third of their assessment by haulage. (fn. 547) That system, which was
evidently adopted because several of the farmers
owned small quarries, probably continued after
1867, when the parish opted not to join the
Lydney highway district that was formed from
the Gloucestershire parishes of the Chepstow
union. (fn. 548) St. Briavels continued to repair its lesser
roads until 1898 when they were taken over by
the Lydney rural district, in which the parish
had been included for other purposes from
1894. (fn. 549) With the rest of the rural district it passed
into the new Forest of Dean district in 1974.

CHURCH.

St. Briavels church was a chapel to
Lydney church for much of its history. It was
probably included in a grant of Lydney church
to Lire abbey (Eure) by William FitzOsbern (d.
1071), (fn. 550) but in 1144 Baderon of Monmouth
confirmed St. Briavels church to Monmouth
priory, a cell of St. Florent abbey (Saumur), and
it was then claimed to have been part of the
endowment of the priory by its founder Wihanoc
of Monmouth in William I's reign. (fn. 551) That
confirmation was approved by the bishop of
Hereford, and St. Florent secured papal confirmations in 1146 and 1157, (fn. 552) but the claim had
presumably been challenged by Lire abbey for
many years, and between 1164 and 1166 the bishop
of Worcester, arbitrating between Lire and St.
Florent, confirmed Lire's right to the church. St.
Florent was able only to establish its right to two
sheaves out of the demesne tithes of St. Briavels,
and it released those to Lire under the settlement.
At the same period, probably also in the 1160s,
the bishop of Hereford dedicated the church and
confirmed it to Lire as a chapel of Lydney
church. (fn. 553) In 1186 a papal bull once more
confirmed the church to St. Florent, (fn. 554) but there
is no evidence that the claim was resumed. St.
Briavels was included as a chapel to Lydney in
the grant of Lydney church by Lire abbey to the
dean and chapter of Hereford in 1219. (fn. 555)

St. Briavels had burial rights by 1282 (fn. 556) but in
other respects remained a chapel of ease, the
tithes being taken by the impropriator and vicar
of Lydney. (fn. 557) Priests, styled curates or chaplains,
were assigned by the vicar to serve it, and from
the mid 17th century they usually also had
charge of the neighbouring chapelry of Hewelsfield. (fn. 558) in 1750 the curate had a salary of £25
and was allowed the surplice fees and a sermon
charity founded by William Whittington. (fn. 559) In
1825 the curate received £100 a year. (fn. 560)

In 1859 a separate benefice was created, endowed with the vicar of Lydney's tithe rent
charge from the parish. The living, a perpetual
curacy but styled a vicarage from 1866, was
placed in the gift of the dean and chapter of
Hereford, patrons of Lydney. (fn. 561) The first incumbent, Horatio Walmsley, bought a cottage at the
south-east corner of the churchyard and in 1864
assigned it for use as a vicarage house; the
building was enlarged and remodelled in two
stages in a Tudor style. The gift of the vicarage
house was matched by £200 granted by Queen
Anne's Bounty in augmentation of the
benefice, (fn. 562) which was worth £150 a year in
1879. (fn. 563) The ecclesiastical parish comprised only
the ancient parish of St. Briavels until 1932: it
was then extended to include most of the former
extraparochial areas of the civil parish, but the
south part of St. Briavels common and the part
of the ancient parish adjoining Brockweir were
added then to Hewelsfield ecclesiastical parish. (fn. 564)
In 1963 the benefice was united with that of
Hewelsfield. The incumbent continued to live at
St. Briavels, where a new vicarage house was
acquired in 1981. (fn. 565)

Two of the stipendiary curates who served the
longest were James Davies, appointed before
1731, and Thomas Edmunds, who succeeded
Davies in 1769 and died in the post in 1804. (fn. 566)
In 1750 Davies held only one service each
Sunday, in the morning or afternoon by alternation with Hewelsfield chapel, (fn. 567) and the same
arrangement was followed in 1825. (fn. 568)

The history of the hermitage chapel at Stowe
is given above. (fn. 569) A chapel dedicated to St.
Margaret stood beside the road at Mork between
St. Margaret's grove, with which the chapel was
endowed, and Mork Farm (the house later replaced by Lindors). (fn. 570) The chapel was possibly
established as a hospital in connexion with the
route from the river crossing at Bigsweir, for a
warden of St. Margaret's hospital at St. Briavels
was granted protection by the Crown in 1256. (fn. 571)
No later record has been found until 1522 when
an indulgence was issued to help finance repairs
at the chapel. (fn. 572) It was later said that, before its
dissolution under the Act of 1547, (fn. 573) a lease of
the chapel was granted by the parishioners of St.
Briavels; perhaps they had communal responsibility for its management. (fn. 574) The building was in
private ownership in 1642, (fn. 575) though the Commonwealth government aparently laid claim to
the freehold in 1652. (fn. 576) In 1664 the chapel was
bought by the Dale family of Mork Farm. (fn. 577) It
was later demolished, probably before 1709. (fn. 578)

A chantry chapel in St. Briavels church, dedicated to St. Mary, was said at its dissolution to
have been endowed by a group of donors. (fn. 579) It
was presumably served by one of the three
chaplains recorded at St. Briavels in 1475, (fn. 580) and
in 1518 an apostate monk of Grace Dieu abbey
was said to serve a chantry in the church. (fn. 581) In
the 1540s the priest serving the chantry also
taught children of the parish. (fn. 582) The chantry
property, which included a number of houses in
the village, was sold by the Crown in 1549. (fn. 583)

William Whittington (d. 1625) gave 26s. 8d. a
year for sermons to be preached each quarter in
St. Briavels church and 20s. to provide furnishings and ornaments. (fn. 584) The sermons were being
preached as directed in the 1820s, (fn. 585) and in the
1960s the fund was used for the expenses of a
visiting preacher at Whitsun. (fn. 586) A newly built
mission chapel standing at Mork, near Lindors,
was licensed in 1887 and remained in use in the
early 20th century. (fn. 587)

The church of ST. MARY, which was known
by that dedication by 1471 (fn. 588) but was apparently
dedicated to St. Briavels in the 12th century, (fn. 589)
is built of rubble with ashlar dressings. It comprises chancel with north vestry, central crossing
with north and south transepts, aisled and clerestoried nave, and south tower incorporating a
porch. The south aisle and its five-bayed arcade
are of the 12th century. The crossing, which
carried a low, broad tower, and the north transept are of c. 1200, and the reconstruction of the
east end was completed by the addition of a long
chancel in the 13th century. (fn. 590) The north aisle
was built c. 1300 and there may then have been
some widening of the nave, which is not central
to the western crossing arch. The south transept
was remodelled in the 14th century and a rood
stair was later built against its west side. Instability of the foundations made necessary the
removal of the central tower in 1829, and a new
tower, its ground floor forming a porch, was
built against the south aisle in 1830-1 in place
of an old porch. The new tower was designed
by John Briggs of Chepstow. (fn. 591) In 1861 the
chancel was rebuilt in shortened form with a
vestry adjoining it on the north, the west window
and the north aisle windows were replaced, and
a ceiling, inserted in 1756, was removed from
the nave. (fn. 592)

The Norman stone font has a plain tub-shaped
bowl with a projecting waistband of scallops. (fn. 593)
A canopied monument in the chancel with
effigies of William Warren (d. 1573) and his
wife (fn. 594) was taken down at the rebuilding of the
chancel in 1861; the broken parts were preserved
in the church (fn. 595) and in 1974 the effigies were
reassembled on a new base in the south aisle. (fn. 596)
A 13th-century tomb recess in the south transept
was uncovered and restored in the late 19th
century and an ancient coffin lid, which has an
early 14th-century carved head inserted in it,
was placed in the recess. A 13th-century piscina,
presumably once used by the chantry priest, was
moved from the north transept to the new
chancel in 1861. (fn. 597) A brass chandelier given to
the church in 1732 was removed in 1861. (fn. 598) The
church had five bells before 1764 when William
Evans of Chepstow recast them and added a
sixth. The ring was augmented to eight when it
was transferred to the new tower in 1831, the
two new bells being cast by John Rudhall; the
new treble was recast in 1905. (fn. 599) The plate includes a chalice and paten cover given to the
church in 1795 and a mid 19th-century paten
and flagon given by the trustees of Whittington's
charity in 1860. (fn. 600) An ancient embroidered altar
frontal is preserved in the church. (fn. 601) The registers
survive from 1660. (fn. 602)

NONCONFORMITY.

A house was licensed
for use by Presbyterians in 1746 (fn. 603) but no other
record of the group has been found. Wesleyan
Methodists, under a Chepstow minister, met at
Green Farm in the village in 1819. (fn. 604) A Wesleyan
Methodist chapel in the part of Hudnalls that
became known as St. Briavels common (fn. 605) was
built c. 1818; in 1851 it had congregations of up
to 18 in the morning and up to 40 in the
afternoon. (fn. 606) It remained open as a Methodist
chapel until the mid 20th century (fn. 607) and had been
converted as a house by 1991. Bible Christians
(Bryanites) were meeting in the parish in 1825 (fn. 608)
but are not recorded later. Baptists, under a
minister of Llandogo (Mon.), registered a
house in 1828 (fn. 609) and were again meeting in the
parish in 1854, (fn. 610) but did not establish a church
there. (fn. 611)

Independents and Congregationalists met in
houses in the parish in 1824 (fn. 612) and in the
1850s (fn. 613) and became permanently established
in 1861 when a chapel was built on the east
side of High Street. (fn. 614) In 1908 the Congregational church at St. Briavels had 25 members
and had outlying mission stations at Mork and
at 'the Common'. (fn. 615) The latter was evidently a
small chapel near Chapel Farm in the north part
of Hudnalls, which had been built by 1880, when
it was styled Independent. (fn. 616) In 1991 the chapel
in the village, which was then under a lay pastor
and affiliated to the Evangelical Fellowship of
Congregational Churches, had morning congregations of c. 40 and evening congregations of c.
25. The chapel at Hudnalls, known as the
Gideon chapel, was then used mainly as a youth
centre by young members of the St. Briavels
congregation and by visiting groups from other
churches. (fn. 617)

EDUCATION.

There were two small private
day schools and a church Sunday school at St.
Briavels in 1818. (fn. 618) A National school had been
established by 1847 when it had an attendance
of 54. School pence were charged at a rate of
more than 1d. a week because little supplementary income could be raised by subscriptions;
some of the poorest children could not afford to
attend. The unsecured schoolroom where it was
held (fn. 619) was presumably, as in 1858 and until 1872,
a room in the castle. (fn. 620) A new church school, on
the Chepstow road at the south end of the
village, was opened in 1872. It was built at the
instigation of the vicar W. T. Allen, whose
architect son designed the building, and the site
was given by W. H. Peel of Aylesmore. (fn. 621) The
average attendance was 135 in 1885, (fn. 622) and in
1910, when it was called St. Briavels Parochial
school, the average attendance was 164 in mixed
and infants' departments. Attendance fell during
the early 20th century to 97 in 1938. (fn. 623) In 1991,
as the St. Briavels Parochial C. of E. school, it
had 64 children on its roll. (fn. 624)

Children from the south part of the parish
attended schools in or near Brockweir, whose
history is given above under Hewelsfield. (fn. 625) An
outlying nonconformist chapel, probably the
Wesleyan chapel at St. Briavels common, was
being used for a small day school under an
untrained teacher in 1867. (fn. 626)

CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.

William
Whittington (d. 1625) gave lands in St. Briavels parish to support ecclesiastical bequests,
payments of £3 a year to 12 poor people, and
£3 a year for apprenticeships. (fn. 627) John Gonning
(d. 1662) charged his Great House estate with
£5 for the poor; William Hoskins by will dated
1661 gave 20s. charged on his Stowe Grange
estate; and John Braban by will dated 1684 gave
40s., which was later charged on Cinderhill
house. A bequest of 40s. charged on one of the
Dunkilns farms by Thomas Evans by will dated
1820 was apparently never implemented. In the
1820s the various eleemosynary bequests were
distributed to the poor in the church at Easter. (fn. 628)
Under the Whittington charity an apprenticeship was made every one or two years in the
18th century and the early 19th and at longer
intervals later. (fn. 629)

Caroline Ironside by will proved 1879 gave a
legacy to provide the poor of St. Briavels and
Llandogo (Mon.) with clothes and other necessities. In 1900 when the endowment was £57 stock,
producing an income of under £2, it was divided
to form separate charities for each parish. (fn. 630)

In 1915 all the charities except Whittington's
were placed under a single body of trustees, as
the United Charities. In 1971 the Whittington
charity was placed under the trustees of the
United Charities and part of its income was
applied, with that of the other charities, to
relieve the poor in cash or kind and another part
to aid young people entering a trade or profession. In 1991 the charities distributed c. £30 in
sums of £3 to ill and handicapped people and,
under the separate provision for the Whittington
charity, small items of equipment were occasionally purchased for young people starting work.
All the income was then drawn from investments, the Whittington land having been sold in
1878 and the Hoskins, Braban, and Gonning
rent charges redeemed in 1916, 1945, and 1973
repectively. (fn. 631)

C. L. Denton (d. 1892) (fn. 632) left an endowment to
establish an almshouse for three elderly men and
three elderly widows. It was built on the south
side of East Street in 1895 by his heir O. W.
Andrews. (fn. 633) The almshouse was modernized in
the late 1960s, (fn. 634) and in 1991 the six occupants
paid a low rent for their accommodation. (fn. 635)

A customary distribution of bread and cheese
to the poor at St. Briavels is described above. (fn. 636)

342. Above, Newland manors. The original est. in St.
Briavels was evidently represented by riverside lands that
were tithe free or tithable to the owner in 1840: G.D.R., T
1/153, which attributed the tithe-free status to ownership by
Llanthony priory.

417. G.D.R., T 1/154, where the 109 a. described as
'common land' was presumably Bearse common and the 300
a. described as 'rough ground' was presumably in Hudnalls,
Mocking Hazel, and the Fence: cf. above, intro.

555. B.L. Harl. MS. 6203, pp. 70-3; cf. Close R. 1227-31,
76. Two years later the ch. was said to be in the king's gift
but no later evidence has been found of a claim by the Crown:
Cur. Reg. R. x. 260.

606. P.R.O., HO 129/576/3/6/14, where it was described as
at Brockweir common in St. Briavels par.; cf. Hockaday Abs.
ccxliii, 1819, where, before the new par. boundary was
established, it was described as at Brockweir common in
Hewelsfield par.